Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Microbial Biology for FY 2000

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Microbial Biology for 2000.

The research and training plan is in the area of Population Biology and is entitled 'Evolution of Wolbachia pipientis Substitution Rates and Phenotypic Variants'. This research seeks to measure the rate and mode of evolutionary change in Wolbachia, a bacterium that lives intracellularly in multiple tissues of various arthropods, and identify the selective forces that mediate persistence of different Wolbachia phenotypic variants in populations. Specifically, the aims are to address 1. Whether or not modification and rescue variants of Wolbachia are maintained in populations as part of an evolutionary cycling scenario, and 2. If the rate and pattern of Wolbachia evolution suggest a small effective population size for the symbiont.