Transmission of Endoscopic Procedures from the Medical Sciences Campus to Four Institutions Simultaneously
4th International Wolbachia Conference
Approximately one hundred investigators, post doctoral fellows and graduate students from five continents and eighteen countries, ranging from Brazil to Sudan, Australia to Holland came to Puerto Rico for the 4th International Wolbachia Conference that was held at the Paradisus Resort, June 24-29, 2006. The conference, supported, in part, by the RCMI Program, Central Electron Microscopy Unit, and other sponsors, was organized by Dr. Wieslaw J. Kozek of the Department of Microbiology and Medical Zoology; National Science Foundation provided travel funds for many of the attending postdoctoral fellows and most of the graduate students.
Wolbachia are gram-negative, vertically transmitted, intracellular bacteria that infect many invertebrates. Discovered by Hertig and Wolbach in 1924 in the Culex pipiens mosquito collected near Boston, MA., these bacteria were for many years considered to be of academic interest. Subsequent findings that they infect from 20 to75% of insects, and other invertebrates such as nematodes, mites and spiders, and the diverse phenotypes that result from infection, ranging from classical mutualism to reproductive parasitism, has rendered Wolbachia a practical model for the study of basic biological and reproductive mechanisms. Wolbachia can override chromosomal sex determination, induce parthenogenesis, selectively kill males, influence sperm competition and generate cytoplasmic incompatibility. The unique biology of these bacteria has attracted increasing number of investigators to study Wolbachia looking questions ranging from evolutional implications of infection to the use of Wolbachia for pest and disease control.
The five-day conference consisted of lectures and poster sessions during which the latest advances in our knowledge of Wolbachia were presented. Topics covered included: Wolbachia in Filariae, Wolbachia Genetics and Genomics, Wolbachia Distribution and Population Dymanics, Mechanisms of Cytoplasmic Incompatibility, Diverse Phenotypes of Wolbachia That Cause Cytoplasmic Incompatibility, Feminization and Induction of Parthenogenesis and Male Killing.
Since the topic of Wolbachia is relatively new to Puerto Rico, preliminary discussions were held during the Conference with Dr. Seth Bordenstein, from the Woods Hole Marine Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, about organizing hands-on workshops dealing with the molecular aspects of Wolbachia at the regional campuses of the UPR system. Many of such workshops, conducted by Dr. Bordenstein in the vicinity of Woods Hole, have received wide and enthusiastic support from the local academic communities.
