Bacteria Encrypts Sperm, Encourages Speciation

Loiosh writes "EurekaAlert has an interesting short report concerning sperm. Scientists have found the most convincing evidence yet that a parasite can contribute to splitting a species in two, thanks to a phenomenon where a wasp's damaged sperm can be "rescued" or fixed only by mating with particular females. A bacterium called Wolbachia prevents the successful development of embryos in matings between two very closely related wasp species that could otherwise produce viable offspring. Instead of merely helping its host compete against non-infected hosts as many parasites do, Wolbachia actively seeks to eliminate non-infected hosts by stopping them from reproducing. To do this, the parasite alters the sperm of its male host, rendering it infertile when paired with an uninfected female. If, however, the male mates with an infected female, the damaged reproductive cells are "rescued" by the female's parasite. It's as if the bacterium encodes the sperm cell, rendering it useless unless it encounters the de-coding bacterium from another infected wasp. The result is that infected males can only impregnate other infected females, not uninfected ones, and makes it difficult for uninfected females to find a compatible mate."

Comments

Paranoid thoughts

[sharkticon]

Wow, this sounds like something that those wonderful people who develop biological weapons would love to get their hands on. Especially those with racial issues. Then they could ensure that the gene pool of their culture remains "pure" from adulteration by "lesser" beings...

Seriously though, this sounds like it has all kinds of ethical implications in the wrong hands. If someone thinks that a certain group shouldn't be allowed to spread their genes throughout a population, then a variation on this which lives in human hosts could ensure that if said group is infected then they can never breed outside of that group again. I can think of several groups that would probably love to get their hands on this kind of capability.

It just goes to show that Nature is still millions of years ahead of our best weapons developers when it comes to nasty techniques...

Re:Paranoid thoughts

[TWR]

This does however remind of an article in The Times (UK) about a year and a half ago about Israeli attempts to create a form of 'genetic weaponry' similar to chemical weapons but discriminatory....

And that article was crap. Since there is no Jewish gene(*see note below), there would be no way to determine if someone is Jewish or non-Jewish. Basically, there is no genetic difference between Jews from Arab countries (who make up a very large percentage of the population of Israel) and Arabs from Arab countries. Pretty stupid weapon, eh?

(* note) There was a recent study which showed that Kohanim may in fact share a common ancestor. Kohanim are (in theory) all descendants of Moses' brother Aaron, the first High Priest. Being a Kohanim is passed down father to son; if your father is a Kohanim and you're a boy, you are a Kohan as well. It's a male-only thing.

By testing many Jews around the world who claimed to be Kohanim, checking for a gene on their Y chromosome (which would only be passed down, father-to-son) and plugging in some numbers for rates of mutation, some British researchers concluded that the vast majority of the modern-day Kohanim share a common male ancestor from about 3500 years ago, which would date nicely with the whole Exodus from Egypt/founding of the Kohanim line. As a nice reinforcement, this gene was virtually impossible to find in people who weren't Kohanim. Kinda neat.

However, Kohanim are relatively small portion of Jews in the world, and only includes males anyway. Once again, a stupid idea for a bio-weapon.

-jon

that two timing dirt-bag

[drfalken]

I'd like this explaned in terms of Alice, Bob and Eve.

I figure which ever way you look at it, Bob's going to be a pretty lucky guy.

But if I were Alice I wouldn't stand for this kind of philandering.

How cool.

[LordArathres]

I generally find myself getting strange looks when I talk about things like this. But I think this is just awesome. It continues to amaze me how much scientific knowledge we are gaining all the time. I mean, who would even think of running an experiment on this.

It is kinda weird to think about what implications this might have though. If this sort of thing would really cause an offshoot of a species, maybe we as humanity were caused by some diseased apes.

This is sort of an encryption thing I guess. I mean the bacteria could itself wait until a properly infected host mates and then deposit its own bacteria into the fertilized embryo that would carry the bacteria to future generations there by causing a mutated species to occur. But if this species is succesful and surpass the original species would it be considered evolution? or maybe just one of those freak occurences that just happens?

It is good to hear about these sort of weird happenings and other cool things at Slashdot. Keep it up people I would hate to actually have to put a TV card in my computer to watch tv. Cant do both, tv is behind computer, although I could set up 2 mirrors to display the tv output on the wall above the computer monitor thereby not having to put a card in the computer. huh?? ok its too late and I need sleep. Later All

Lord Arathres

Oh great

[_Void_]

Oh great, encrypted sperm - does this mean we'll now all need a munitions licence to carry gonads across national borders?

Gives a whole new meaning to "playing with your weapon"...

Re:Oh great

[jandrese]

Oh I don't know, that could be good for ones self esteem.

Hold it right there, is that a weapon of mass destruction in your pants? You're going to need a license to carry that across the border bud!

Down that path lies madness. On the other hand, the road to hell is paved with melting snowballs.

Wolbachia

[hey!]

I'm a computer geek who works in public health so I've been following the Wolbachia story for some time.

"Splitting a species in two is probably just a side effect of the bacteria's reproductive method, of their way of eliminating non-infected hosts."

Note that infected females can still breed with uninfected males, so the bacterium's "strategy" is to eliminate uninfected offspring. If speciation per se was beneficial to its strategy you'd expect infected females to be unable to breed with uninfected males.

This really is old news. As the article states, the effect was first discovered by entomologists in the 1950s and finally attributed to Wolbachia in the 1970s despite the fact that it was isolated in mosquitoes in the 1920s. Mosquito research is not the most aggressively funded field despite that the mosquito kills more people than any other animal on earth. Most animals we think of as "dangerous" (like sharks and grizzly bears) don't even come within five orders of magnitude of the Anopheles mosquitoes.

Wolbachia infects the reproductive organs of a wide variety of arthopods where it pulls a number interesting reengineering stunts, such as enabling virgin births.

Wolbachia has some interesting public health implications. Somebody did a paper last year that showed that some worms in the genus that causes river blindness have evolved to become dependent upon Wolbachia for survival -- and Wolbachia can be killed by tetracycline. Eighteen million people in Subsaharan Africa are infected with Onchocerca, which to date has had no effective treatment. This has tremendous economic impact in an underdeveloped region.

Re:Wolbachia

[YetAnotherDave]

Wolbachia infects the reproductive organs of a wide variety of arthopods where it pulls a number interesting reengineering stunts, such as enabling virgin births.

Do the offspring of these virgin births form religions, thereby causing 'holy' wars against un-infected insects?

Re:Wolbachia

[hey!]

. Presumably there would be no point in giving tetracycline to someone already infected with river blindness, right?

No, giving it to people who are in the early stages of infection might be effective.

The blindness is caused by an inflammatory response produced when dead larvae accumulate in the cornea, causing lesions and catarcts. It is damage is progressive. There are early signs of infection, so if there were an effective treatment that could be given when these signs appear the disease would be halted before it progressed to blindness.

Blindness is also one of several effects caused by the infection, including progressive destruction of elastic tissue and resulting severe disfigurement (elephantiasis). Even after blindness has set in it would be valuable to have a treatment.

Imagine somebody in your family had this. You wouldn't want them to be blind, but to be blind and grotesquely disfigured would be too much to bear.

This is great for contraception

[roman_mir]

This discovery could have great impact on how human beings use contraception. Every man could be infected with a modified parasite (modified just for that person) and then he will not have children until he really wants to and his mate also really wants, at which point she only has to be infected with the properly DNA modified parasite that would work with only her man. There will be no unwanted pregnancies, and both parents mutual consent would be needed to have a child. Of-course the child will inherit the parasite but that is just good for the next phase of contraception.

Re:Ah!

[DeadSea]

Now to create my own such virus and infect myself and Natalie Portman. Then she will have no choice. Muwahahahaha.

(At least I didn't say petrified. oops.)

Every sperm is sacred

[CarrotLord]

even encryptped ones...

rr

RFC

[tarsi210]

Request for Comments:
To be Numbered
A Standard for the Transmission of Encrypted IP Datagrams on WASP

Status of this Memo

This memo describes an experimental method for the encapsulation of IP datagrams on WASP (Wide-Area Sperm Protocol). This specification is primarily useful wooded areas. This is an experimental, not recommended standard. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Overview and Rational

WASP transmissions offer encryption with the complexity of DNA encoding with the convenience of naturally-occuring encoding methods via reproductive methods. The connection topology is limited to any vessel which may carry the encrypted datagrams; however, encryption and decryption of the data must be done within the confines of the reproductive genitalia of a WASP carrier. Thusly, the throughput of data is limited to the ability of the WASP to make the necessary connections with other WASPs during the transmission interval. Note that high-bandwidth transmissions are not recommended, as the carrier may die from repeated use and packets will be lost.

Frame Format

The IP datagram is submitted in the form of a complex protein strand which the WASP ingests. This is then translated into a DNA fragment in the SM (Sperm Module) and encrypted by the bacterial cultures within the host carrier. Transmission may then commence. During transmission, various system messages may be transmitted via broadcast datagrams. Some of these possible messages are:

• "0100: SYSTEM: HONEY HAVE YOU COME YET?"
• "0233: SYSTEM: WATCH WHERE YOU'RE POKING THAT THING!"
• "0355: /dev/penile0: Device not responding"
• "0556: module 'p0rn' not found: Unable to continue"

Upon transmission to the receiving host, the datagram is decrypted using similar methods and produces the requested result.

Discussion

Transmission quality of service (QoS) is dependent upon the level of low-lighting and available singular-typed WASP carriers. High transmission rates are most often found in alleys behind popular adult establishments and in dorm rooms of universities.

Security Considerations

Security is guaranteed by the complex encoding system; however, precautions should be made to keep such transmissions away from RAID devices, as this could cause premature data loss. Other outside influences, such as TROJAN viruses, may keep the data from reaching its intended recipient.