Matthew Doremus

• Doctor of Philosophy in Entomology and Insect Science
• Post-Doc Researcher at University of Kentucky

Importance: Maternally-transmitted bacterial symbionts are widespread and can have major impacts on arthropod biology, including insects of medical and agricultural importance. Given that host and symbiont fitness are tightly linked, inherited symbionts can spread within host populations by providing beneficial services. Many insects, however, are...

Environmental factors, including temperature, can have large effects on species interactions, including mutualisms and antagonisms. Most insect species are infected with heritable bacterial symbionts with many protecting their hosts from natural enemies. However, many symbionts or their products are thermally sensitive hence their effectiveness may...

Terrestrial arthropods, including insects, commonly harbor maternally inherited intracellular symbionts that confer benefits to the host or manipulate host reproduction to favor infected female progeny. These symbionts may be especially vulnerable to thermal stress, potentially leading to destabilization of the symbiosis and imposing costs to the h...

Arthropods harbor heritable intracellular symbionts that may manipulate host reproduction to favor symbiont transmission. In cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), the symbiont sabotages the reproduction of infected males such that high levels of offspring mortality result when they mate with uninfected females. In crosses with infected males and infect...

Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) is a common form of reproductive sabotage caused by maternally inherited bacterial symbionts of arthropods. CI is a two-step manipulation: first, the symbiont modifies sperm in male hosts which results in the death of fertilized, uninfected embryos. Second, when females are infected with a compatible strain, the sym...

Arthropods commonly harbor maternally-transmitted bacterial endosymbionts that manipulate host biology. Multiple heritable symbionts can co-infect the same individual, allowing these host-restricted bacteria to engage in cooperation or conflict, which can ultimately affect host phenotype. The spider Mermessus fradeorum is variably infected with up...

Parasitoid wasps in the genus Encarsia are commonly used as biological pest control agents of whiteflies and armored scale insects in greenhouses or the field. They are also hosts of the bacterial endosymbiont Cardinium hertigii, which can cause reproductive manipulation phenotypes, including parthenogenesis, feminization, and cytoplasmic incompati...

Minute parasitoid wasps in the genus Encarsia are commonly used as biological pest control agents of whiteflies and armored scale insects in greenhouses or in the field. They are also a key host of the bacterial endosymbiont Cardinium hertigii which can cause a suite of reproductive manipulation phenotypes, including parthenogenesis, feminization,...

Insects and other arthropods often harbour intracellular bacterial associates. These bacterial symbionts cannot survive outside their host and rely on vertical transmission from infected mothers to their progeny. Thus, symbiont success is tied directly to reproductive success of female hosts. As a result of this intimate relationship, these heritab...

Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) is a conditional sterility in numerous arthropods that is caused by inherited, intracellular bacteria such as Wolba- chia. Matings between males carrying CI-inducing Wolbachia and uninfected females, or between males and females infected with different Wolbachia strains, result in progeny that die during very early...

1. The pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, maintains extreme variation in resistance to its most common parasitoid wasp enemy, Aphidius ervi, which is sourced from two known mechanisms: protective bacterial symbionts, most commonly Hamiltonella defensa, or endogenously encoded defenses. We have recently found that individual aphids may employ each defe...

Background Many animals exhibit variation in resistance to specific natural enemies. Such variation may be encoded in their genomes or derived from infection with protective symbionts. The pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, for example, exhibits tremendous variation in susceptibility to a common natural enemy, the parasitic wasp Aphidius ervi. Pea aph...