How does wolbachia manipulate the reproduction of its insect

Solution

Wolbachia is a bacterial parasite of arthropods and nematodes. It invades egg of the female host for its transmission and four possible manipulations are carried out by it and are as follows,

1) Feminization of infected males : It converts the infected genetic male offspring into females.

2) Induced parthenogenesis : It induces the production of female offspring without fertilization by sperm

3) Killing of infected males : It kills infected males

4) Cytoplasmic Incompatibility (CI) : When a Wolbachia infected male mates with an uninfected female it kills all the offspring produced because it is an incompatible cross. But when the same infected male is mated to an infected female there will be no mortality.