A sex-changing bacteria can turn male insects into females by interfering with its host's genetic imprinting, a team of Italian researchers has discovered.
Ilaria Negri and Alberto Alma of Turin University worked with teams from the universities of Modena and Milan to discover how Wolbachia bacteria could ''feminize'' male leafhoppers.
The bacteria are able to reprogram males so efficiently that they become female in aspect and sex-appeal, which makes them a target for normal courting males, and some are able to reproduce.
''The mechanism used by Wolbachia for altering host reproduction is not clear, but in this work we provide the first evidence that (it) interferes with the host's genetic imprinting, altering the... pattern of the leafhopper genome,'' the researchers explained.
However, the bacteria is not able to erase all evidence that feminized leafhoppers were once male, since male features remain in the insect's last abdominal segment.
The team also discovered there were two types of feminized leafhoppers: most have ovaries, but a small proportion have testes.
The team discovered that leafhoppers with testes were infected with four times less bacteria than other feminized males and maintained a male genome.
Wolbachia is an inherited bacteria that is passed from generation to generation via the mother's eggs.
The research is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences.
