3/7/2024 0 Comments Grounded spider silk![]() BMC Biology - the flagship biology journal of the BMC series - publishes research and methodology articles of special importance and broad interest in any area of biology and biomedical sciences. Please credit Goodacre et al., BMC Biologyģ. Images of ballooning spiders are available here: All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.Īrticle citation and URL available on request at on the day of publicationĢ. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. Please name the journal in any story you write. ![]() George Thomas and Godfrey M HewittĪfter the embargo, article available at journal website: Sara L Goodacre, Oliver Y Martin, Dries Bonte, Linda Hutchings, Chris Woolley, Kamal Ibrahim, C.F. Microbial modification of host long-distance dispersal capacity This parasite-induced change in a non-reproductive trait has never been shown before and, according to Goodacre, "Clearly shows that the dynamics of ecosystem services such as a spider's pest-controlling function may be altered as a consequence of bacterial infection".ġ. They also observed that Rickettsia-infected spiders reared in the laboratory had reduced long-distance (but not short-distance) dispersal. The researchers treated the spiders with antibiotics to reduce the bacterial infection and showed that this increased their ballooning frequency. Rather, we believe that reducing long-distance dispersal could be an evolved adaptive modification by bacterial infections to promote their own transmission". She said, "Because we found no reduction in fitness associated with Rickettsia infection, the reduced long-distance dispersal seems unlikely to be simply due to decreased body condition caused by illness. While working at the University of East Anglia, Sara Goodacre led an international team of researchers who investigated the microbes' effect on the spiders' ballooning behavior. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology suggest that it may be in the bacteria's interests to ground the spiders and that this reduction in dispersal could reduce gene flow and impact on reproductive isolation within the meta-population. Money spiders infected with Rickettsia bacteria are less likely to 'balloon' – that is, to use their silk as sails to catch gusts of wind and travel long distances. Image: This is a money spider "ballooning." view more
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