An Insect on the Evolutionary Fast Track

NYT ^ | 4/7/2011 | NICHOLAS BAKALAR

[balls]

It appears to be a case of high-speed evolution.

Many arthropods — the large group of invertebrates that includes insects and crustaceans — are hosts of symbiotic bacteria inherited through the maternal line. The sweet potato whitefly, an agricultural pest, has acquired a new one.

Over a six-year period, a bacterium from the genus Rickettsia swept through the whitefly population, assuring survival advantages for the whiteflies and for itself. The new research appears in the April 8 issue of Science.

“Whiteflies that have this infection have greater fitness, at least in the laboratory,” said the senior author of the study, Martha S. Hunter, a professor of entomology at the University of Arizona. “We’ll be testing whether this fitness benefit exists in the field as well.”

Compared with uninfected whiteflies, infected insects develop faster, are more likely to survive to adulthood and lay more eggs. Moreover, the bacterium induces the insects to produce a larger number of daughters, advantageous for a bacterium that is passed to the next generation only by the females.

[balls]

More proof of evolution,

[Texas Eagle]

So-o-o-o-o-....what is it evolving into?

[Texas Eagle]

So-o-o-o-o-....what did the whitefly evolve from?

And why did it evolve into its present form?

And what will take its place to whatever job it evolved into to perfom once it has evolved into whatever it's goint to evolve into?

[lurk]

Isn’t the correct term adaptation, not evolution?

[Texas Eagle]

Isn’t the correct term adaptation, not evolution?

What a buzzkill.

I'll bet you're the type of person who points out when people have a piece of chive sticking to their front teeth, aren't you? You seem like the type.

[txhurl]

One thing whiteflies haven’t adapted to is wind. I put my decorative potato vines that had them on the windy deck and
they are gone.

Aphids, who can cling, are holding out OK until my next chemical temper tantrum.

[NWFLConservative]

I wonder if anyone thought to do research on whether the whitefly becomes a reservoir host for the rikettsia bug since they can cause inconvenient little infections like tyhpus, Boutonneuse fever and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, all of which can be fatal.

[NWFLConservative]

Precisely.

[Rudder]

The bacterium evolved. The article erroneously implies the whitefly evolved.

[SunkenCiv]

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[balls]

“Isn’t the correct term adaptation, not evolution?”

I don't know the scientific difference and think evolution is continual adaptation.

[PzLdr]

Isn’t all this talk about ‘whiteflies’ racist?

[ClearCase_guy]

The controversy over Evolution is centered around the idea that one species might evolve into a different species. Down that road, we would need to see a creature from one genus evolve into a different genus. One class evolve into a different class. These are monumental changes and nothing of the sort has ever been demonstrated.

When we see adaptation within a single species, we shrug and say, So What? This is not the same thing as saying everything started from a single-celled lifeform.

Adaptation is boring and proves nothing at all.

[Pharmboy]

Well, I always thought that one pretty good definition of evolution was change in gene frequency. Speciation occurs when populations or sub-populations are isolated (genetically) from their sisters and brothers over a long period of time.

Thanks for posting...interesting.

[Wolfstar]

Uhmmm...hate to burst your bubble, but evolution is adaptation. Adaptation is what causes organisms to evolve.

I don’t understand the resistance some conservatives have toward evolution. After all, we humans evolved from primitive cave dewllers into the advanced civilization we have today. Human history is a story of evolution.

[Texas Eagle]

Well, it’s at least fly-ist.

[Nevadan]

So, now the whitefly is (drum roll) STILL a whitefly. Now if it had “evolved” into a new type of bird - that would truly be proof of real macro-evolution in the materialist sense.

[Texas Eagle]

The bacterium evolved.

Oh. Well, the same questions apply. What did it evolve from? Why did it evolve into its present form? What will take its place to the job it presently does when it evolves into whatever it evolves into? What will it evolve into?

[GOPJ]

ping

[Nevadan]

I hate to burst your bubble, but even the most die hard creationist does not deny evolution within a species - it is the supposed evolution between species (macro-evolution) that is the true controversy. The fact that there is variations within a species is no proof that it occurs between species.