Wolbachia PCR Lab: Discover the Microbes Within!
With materials and protocols based on those developed by research scientists at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Lab, this unit explores a newly discovered parasitic relationship between a feminizing bacteria, Wolbachia, and their insect hosts. With sections touching on various topics in biology, including ecology, systematics, reproductive biology, symbiotic relationships, biotechnology and bioinformatics, this lab can be incorporated into a variety of biology classes at the high school level. Students go into the field to collect insects, identify the order to which the insect belongs, extract DNA and perform PCR analysis on the insects to determine if they harbor the Wolbachia bacteria. Additional bioinformatics activities are included to analyze the nucleotide sequence of the bacteria DNA, both for students successful at identifying infected insects and and those whose insects were not parasitized by Wolbachia.
Click to download the Wolbachia Student Laboratory Guide. Note: The Teacher Guide and other resources are located below. You must be signed in as an authenticated teacher to view them.
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Click to download a sample DNA sequence for use in the Bioinformatics Module or to access the online Insect Identification Key.
Visit the "Resources" page to find interesting articles about Wolbachia!