Anne M. Estes

Towson University | TU · Department of Biological Sciences

Delftia tsuruhatensis strain 45.2.2 is a member of the zebrafish, Danio rerio , skin mucus microbiota. Its genome is similar in size and GC content to those of other Delftia strains.

The skin mucus of teleost fish harbors a complex microbial community that is continually interacting with the aquatic environment. Despite zebrafish, Danio rerio, serving as a model organism in a myriad of research fields, very little is known about the composition and role of the skin mucus microbiome. The purpose of this study was to determine a...

Using nontoxic craft items and disposable lab consumables, we have developed nine modules to teach fundamental, hands-on microbiology lab skills safely at home. These "Crafty" teaching modules can be paired with virtual instruction and/or data collected by an instructor to replicate traditional microbiology lab exercises that characterize an unknow...

Using non-toxic craft items and disposable lab consumables, we have developed eight modules to teach fundamental, hands-on microbiology lab skills safely at home. These ‘crafty’ teaching modules can be paired with virtual instruction and/or data collected by an instructor to replicate a traditional unknown microbiology lab series. Materials and pro...

The pestivorous tephritid olive fly has long been known as a frequent host of the obligately host-associated bacterial endosymbiont, Erwinia dacicola, as well as other facultative endosymbionts. The genomes of Erwinia dacicola and Enterobacter sp. OLF, isolated from a California olive fly, encode the ability to supplement amino acids and vitamins m...

Erwinia dacicola is a dominant endosymbiont of the pestiferous olive fly. Its genome is similar in size and GC content to those of free-living Erwinia species, including the plant pathogen Erwinia amylovora . The E. dacicola genome encodes the metabolic capability to supplement and detoxify the olive fly’s diet in larval and adult stages.

Enterobacter sp. strain OLF colonizes laboratory-reared and wild individuals of the olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae. The 5.07-kbp genome sequence of Enterobacter sp. strain OLF encodes metabolic pathways that allow the bacterium to partially supplement the diet of the olive fly when its dominant endosymbiont, Erwinia dacicola, is absent.

“Modeling the Dynamic Digestive System Microbiome” is a hands-on activity designed to demonstrate the dynamics of microbiome ecology using dried pasta and beans to model disturbance events in the human digestive system microbiome. This exercise demonstrates how microbiome diversity is influenced by: 1) niche availability and habitat space and 2) a...

It is increasingly clear that eukaryotes have acquired bacterial DNA and function through horizontal gene transfer (HGT). In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Chou et al. (2014) and Metcalf et al. (2014) report multiple HGTs of bacterial tae and lysozyme genes, respectively, to diverse eukaryotic and archaeal hosts that may complement their respon...

Mutualistic bacterial endosymbionts provide many benefits to their insect hosts, but their role in mating has not been studied in the past. In this study, we examined copulatory success and mating latency as two parameters of mating success to assess the influence of Candidatus Erwinia dacicola on mating between a laboratory population of olive fli...

Insects feeding on plant sap, blood, and other nutritionally incomplete diets are typically associated with mutualistic bacteria that supplement missing nutrients. Herbivorous mammal dung contains more than 86% cellulose and lacks amino acids essential for insect development and reproduction. Yet one of the most ecologically necessary and evolution...

The microbiome of the olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae (Gmelin), a worldwide pest of olives (Olea europaea L.), has been examined for >100 yr as part of efforts to identify bacteria that are plant pathogens vectored by the fly or are beneficial endosymbionts essential for the fly's survival and thus targets for possible biological control. Because...

The olive fly (OLF), Bactrocera oleae (Rossi), is an invasive tephritid fruit fly that causes extensive damage to olive crops around the world (especially in the Mediterranean basin and North America). Previous attempts to use the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) for the OLF were not successful because of the inability to rear high quality OLF in the...

As polyphagous, holometabolous insects, tephritid fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) provide a unique habitat for endosymbiotic bacteria, especially those microbes associated with the digestive system. Here we examine the endosymbiont of the olive fly [Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) (Diptera: Tephritidae)], a tephritid of great economic importance. “Cand...

Although heritable microorganisms are increasingly recognized as widespread in insects, no systematic screens for such symbionts have been conducted in Drosophila species (the primary insect genetic models for studies of evolution, development, and innate immunity). Previous efforts screened relatively few Drosophila lineages, mainly for Wolbachia....

Despite extensive research on the evolution of avian dichromatism, the anatomical bases for differences between the sexes in species with structurally coloured plumage remain largely unknown. Using full-spectrum spectrometry and transmission electron microscopy, we compared the colour and morphology of rump feathers of male and female eastern blueb...

Understanding genome-wide links between genotype and phenotype has generally been difficult due to both the complexity of phenotypes, and until recently, inaccessibility to large numbers of genes that might underlie a trait. To address this issue, we establish the association between particular RNAi phenotypes in Caenorhabditis elegans and sequence...

Evidence suggests that structural plumage colour can be an honest signal of individual quality, but the mechanisms responsible for the variation in expression of structural coloration within a species have not been identified. We used full-spectrum spectrometry and transmission electron microscopy to investigate the effect of variation in the nanos...

The relationship between density and location of zooxanthellae and levels of carbonic anhydrase (CA) activity was examined in Cassiopea xamachana. In freshly collected symbiotic animals, high densities of zooxanthellae corresponded with high levels of CA activity in host bell and oral arm tissues. Bleaching resulted in a significant loss of zooxant...

Mnemiopsis mccradyi, a common coastal ctenophore, was observed to bear two distinct, exclusive assemblages of protistan epibionts. The mobiline peritrich, Trichodina ctenophorii (Estes et al., 1997), and small Flabellula-like gymnamoebae inhabited only the surface of the comb plates. By contrast, small Vexillifera-like gymnamoebae and large Protood...

Peritrich ciliates of the genus Trichodina are internal or external symbionts of invertebrate and vertebrate hosts. We describe here Trichodina ctenophorii n. sp., a symbiont of Mnemiopsis mccraydii and Beroë ovata (Phylum Ctenophora). The morphology of fixed and living specimens is revealed by silver impregnation, scanning electron microscopy, and...

The valves of three diatom species (Achnanthes brevipes, Nitzschia palea and Synedra ulna) maintained in long-term culture were studied with scanning electron microscopy. Abnormalities observed included fragmented and duplicated raphe systems, disrupted orientation of areolae and fibulae, and obscure areolae. It is recommended that investigators us...