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Martha Hunter, PhD, conducts research largely focused on understanding the evolutionary biology and ecology of parasitoids and predators important in biological control of agricultural pests. A group that has been central to much of her research are members of the aphelinid genus Encarsia, parasitoids of whiteflies and scale insects. Recently, the theme of her research has turned to the role of symbiotic microorganisms on the ecology and evolution of natural enemies. Dr. Hunter has found a bacterial symbiont in the Bacteroidetes, recently named Cardinium hertigii, that is unrelated to the better known proteobacterium, Wolbachia, but also manipulates the reproduction of is hosts in ways that enhances its transmission. Like Wolbachia, it induces parthenogenesis as well as cytoplasmic incompatibility in the autoparasitoid genus Encarsia, two reproductive phenotypes thought to be unique to Wolbachia.Show Less
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Courses
- SSHICESecrets of Success: How Insects Conquered Earth!
- REEResearch in Ecology and Evolution
- IBIIIntroductory Biology II
- MISMethods in Insect Science
Grants
- Symbiont Transmission Constraints and Consequences in the Orchard Bug Pest Leptoglossus Zonatus
Principal Investigator (PI)
2023
$646.2K
Active - Nematicidal and Phytotoxic Efficacy of Photorhabdus Metabolites for Control of Plant Parasites
Key Personnel (KP)
2022
$225.0K
Active - Collaborative Research: The Saboteur's Tools: Mechanisms for Host Reproductive Manipulation by the Bacterial Arthropod Endosymbiont Cardinium Hertigii
Principal Investigator (PI)
2020
$375.0K
Active - Does An Environmentally-Acquired Beneficial Symbiont Shape The Biology Of A Leaf-Footed Bug Pest?
Principal Investigator (PI)
2019
$455.0K
Active - The Role of Mircoorganisms on Beetle Wings
Principal Investigator (PI)
2017
$90.0K
- Genetic & Cytogenetic Bases of Cardinium-Caused Cytoplasmic Incompatibility in Arthropods
Principal Investigator (PI)
2013
$520.0K
- Symbiocontrol- The role of bacterial symbiont Cardinium in shaping the ecology and evolution of an insect parasitoid wasp: fundamental studies...
Principal Investigator (PI)
2013
$11.3K
- The cause and consequences of remarkable fitness benefits conferred on the sweetpotato whitefly by its bacterial endosymbiont, Rickettsia
Principal Investigator (PI)
2011
$445.3K
- Dissertation Research: Inducible egg stacking defends against parasitism in a seed beetle
Principal Investigator (PI)
2011
$8.2K
- Understanding the Breakneck Spread of a Rickettsia Symbiont in an Invasive Whitefly: Mechanisms and Conditional Effects
Principal Investigator (PI)
2010
$720.5K
News
- 6 From UA Recognized in New Class of Fellows by AAAS
2017
- Russian Dolls of the Bug World
2012
- This Beetle Uses Eggs as Shields Against Wasps
2011
- Aphids Saved From Gruesome Death by Virus-Infected Bacteria
2009
- The Right Hitchhiker Can Save an Aphid's Life
2005
- Awards for Excellence 2004: Suzanne Kelly
2004
- Ecologists Reveal War Triangle Among Aphids, Wasps and Bacteria
2002
Publications (132)
Recent
- One of two co-infecting Cardinium symbiont strains causes cytoplasmic incompatibility and localizes outside of sperm cells in Encarsia partenopea
2022
- Sex-based de novo transcriptome assemblies of the parasitoid wasp Encarsia suzannae, a host of the manipulative heritable symbiont Cardinium hertigii
2022
- Development of common leaf-footed bug pests depends on the presence and identity of their environmentally-acquired symbionts.
2022
- Hiding in plain sight: Cryptic enemies are found on cochineal (Hemiptera: Dactylopiidae), a scale insect of economic and cultural significance
2022
- Quality over quantity: unraveling the contributions to cytoplasmic incompatibility caused by two coinfecting Cardinium symbionts
2022
- Cryptic enemies of the economically- and culturally-important scale insect, cochineal (Hemiptera: Dactylopiidae)
2021
- Cardinium localization during its parasitoid wasp host’s development provides insights into cytoplasmic incompatibility.
2020
- Cardinium Localization During Its Parasitoid Wasp Host’s Development Provides Insights Into Cytoplasmic Incompatibility
2020
- Continent-scale sampling reveals fine-scale turnover in a beneficial bug symbiont
2020
- The saboteur's tools: Common mechanistic themes across manipulative symbioses
2020
- What goes up might come down: the spectacular spread of an endosymbiont is followed by its decline a decade later
2020
- Sex ratios in haplodiploid herbivores (Aleyrodidae and Thysanoptera): A review and tools for study.
2019
- Geography of an environmentally-acquired symbiosis: Is the bug-Burkholderia mutualism spatially structured?
2019
- Development of a multi-locus sequence typing system helps reveal the evolution of Cardinium hertigii, a reproductive manipulator of insects.
2019
- Exposure to opposing temperature regimes causes comparable effects on Cardinium density but contrasting effects on Cardinium-caused cytoplasmic incompatibility.
2019
- Exposure to opposing temperature extremes causes comparable effects on Cardinium density but contrasting effects on Cardinium-induced cytoplasmic …
2019
- What goes up might come down: The spectacular spread of an endosymbiont is followed by its decline a decade later.
2019
- Determining the egg fertilization rate of Bemisia tabaci using a cytogenetic technique
2019
- Sex ratios in the haplodiploid herbivores, Aleyrodidae and Thysanoptera: A review and tools for study
2019
- Program Symposium: Insect Microbiomes: Traversing Disciplines to Understand and Manage Helpful and Harmful Hexapods
2018
- Developing the bug-Burkholderia symbiosis as a model for studying environmental symbiont acquisition
2018
- Comparative genomics of Cardinium reveals new candidates for genes underlying Cardinium-induced reproductive manipulations.
2018
- The communication that divides us
2018
- Enrichment of low-density symbionts from minute insects
2018
- Enrichment of low-density symbiont DNA from minute insects.
2018
- Do environmentally-acquired Burkholderia symbionts serve as a reservoir of local adaptations for their insect hosts?
2017
- Bacterial communities in cochineal insect species of Arizona
2017
- Revision of the Encarsia pergandiella species complex (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae), parasitoids of whitefly pests.
2017
- Does the endosymbiont Rickettsia modify the feeding behavior of its insect host?
2017
- Reproductive interference and fecundity affect competitive interactions of sibling species with low mating barriers: Experimental and theoretical evidence
2017
- A revision of the Encarsia pergandiella species complex (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) shows cryptic diversity in parasitoids of whitefly pests
2017
- Reproductive interference, hybrid sterility and fecundity affect competitive interactions of sibling species with low mating barriers: Experimental and theoretical evidence.
2017
- A comparative genomic approach to understanding the genes underlying symbiont-induced reproductive manipulations in Cardinium hertigii.
2017
- Transcriptome Sequencing Reveals Novel Candidate Genes for Cardinium hertigii-Caused Cytoplasmic Incompatibility and Host-Cell Interaction
2017
- Host nuclear genotype influences phenotype of a conditional mutualist symbiont
2017
- Cytological analysis of cytoplasmic incompatibility induced by Cardinium suggests convergent evolution with its distant cousin Wolbachia.
2017
- Changing fitness effects of a transformational bacterial endosymbiont on its invasive whitefly host
2017
- Conditional fitness benefits of the Rickettsia bacterial symbiont in an insect pest
2016
- Cryptic diversity, reproductive isolation and cytoplasmic incompatibility in a classic biological control success story
2016
- “Darwin's corollary” and cytoplasmic incompatibility induced by Cardinium may contribute to speciation in Encarsia wasps (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae)
2016
- Diversity of symbiotic bacteria associated with Bemisia tabaci (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) in cassava mosaic disease pandemic areas of Tanzania
2015
- Dynamics of the Endosymbiont Rickettsia in an Insect Pest
2015
- Bacterial endosymbionts in field-collected samples of Trialeurodes sp. nr. abutiloneus (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae)
2014
- The facultative symbiont Rickettsia protects an invasive whitefly against entomopathogenic Pseudomonas syringae strains
2014
- Factors Affecting the Strength of Cardinium-Induced Cytoplasmic Incompatibility in the Parasitic Wasp Encarsia pergandiella (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae)
2014
- Egg and time limitation mediate an egg protection strategy
2014
- Symbiont infection affects whitefly dynamics in the field
2014
- Characteristics, Phenotype, and Transmission of Wolbachia in the Sweet Potato Whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), and Its Parasitoid Eretmocerus sp. nr …
2014
- Delay, avoidance and protection in oviposition behaviour in response to fine-scale variation in egg parasitism risk
2013
- Comparative Genomics Suggests an Independent Origin of Cytoplasmic Incompatibility in Cardinium hertigii
2012
- Mothers modify eggs into shields to protect offspring from parasitism
2012
- Comparative Genomics Suggests an Independent Origin of Cytoplasmic Incompatibility
2012
- Parasitic wasp responses to symbiont-based defense in aphids
2012
- Horizontal transmission of the insect symbiont Rickettsia is plant-mediated
2012
- Rickettsia ‘In’ and ‘Out’: Two Different Localization Patterns of a Bacterial Symbiont in the Same Insect Species
2011
- Endosymbiont costs and benefits in a parasitoid infected with both Wolbachia and Cardinium
2011
- Rapid spread of a bacterial symbiont in an invasive whitefly is driven by fitness benefits and female bias
2011
- Parasitoid bacterial symbionts as markers of within‐host competitive outcomes: superparasitoid advantage and sex ratio bias
2011
- Superinfection of cytoplasmic incompatibility-inducing Wolbachia is not additive in Orius strigicollis (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae)
2011
- Population dynamics and rapid spread of Cardinium, a bacterial endosymbiont causing cytoplasmic incompatibility in Encarsia pergandiella (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae)
2010
- Extraordinarily widespread and fantastically complex: comparative biology of endosymbiotic bacterial and fungal mutualists of insects
2010
- OOS 49-6: Dramatic invasion of Rickettsia in a whitefly population in the Southwestern United States
2010
- Assessments of Fitness Effects by the Facultative Symbiont Rickettsia in the Sweetpotato Whitefly (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae)
2009
- Cytoplasmic incompatibility in the parasitic wasp Encarsia inaron: disentangling the roles of Cardinium and Wolbachia symbionts
2009
- Almost there: transmission routes of bacterial symbionts between trophic levels
2009
- Inherited fungal and bacterial endosymbionts of a parasitic wasp and its cockroach host
2009
- Feminization and the collapse of haplodiploidy in an asexual parasitoid wasp harboring the bacterial symbiont Cardinium
2009
- Negative fitness consequences and transmission dynamics of a heritable fungal symbiont of a parasitic wasp
2009
- Bacteriophages encode factors required for protection in a symbiotic mutualism
2009
- OOS 31-4: Parasitic wasp responses to symbiont-based defense in aphids
2009
- Population dynamics of defensive symbionts in aphids
2008
- Population and evolutionary genetics-Population biology of cytoplasmic incompatibility: Maintenance and spread of Cardinium symbionts in a parasitic wasp
2008
- Population biology of cytoplasmic incompatibility: maintenance and spread of Cardinium symbionts in a parasitic wasp
2008
- Inherited bacterial symbionts influence host selection behavior of a whitefly parasitoid
2007
- Heterospecific ovicide influences the outcome of competition between two endoparasitoids, Encarsia formosa and Encarsia luteola
2007
- Cytological evidence for two different mechanisms of thelytokous parthenogenesis in Encarsia parasitoids harbouring Wolbachia or Cardinium bacteria
2007
- Manipulation of oviposition choice of the parasitoid wasp, Encarsia pergandiella, by the endosymbiotic bacterium Cardinium
2007
- The mechanism of parthenogenesis-induction by the bacterial endosymbiont Cardinium suggests independent origins from Wolbachia
2006
- Inherited Bacteroidetes symbionts in arthropods
2006
- Thank you to Charu
2006
- The emerging diversity of Rickettsia
2006
- Cytoplasmic incompatibility and multiple symbiont infection in the ash whitefly parasitoid, Encarsia inaron
2006
- Variation in resistance to parasitism in aphids is due to symbionts not host genotype
2005
- Reconsideration of the role of yeasts associated with Chrysoperla green lacewings
2005
- Characterization of a ‘Bacteroidetes’ symbiont in Encarsia wasps (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae): proposal of ‘Candidatus Cardinium hertigii’
2004
- Costs and benefits of a superinfection of facultative symbionts in aphids
2004
- Cardinium, a newly discovered symbiont in the Bacteroidetes, causes cytoplasmic incompatibility in Encarsia parasitoids
2004
- NEW TAXA-Other Bacteria-Characterization of a'Bacteroidetes' symbiont in Encarsia wasps (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae): Proposal of'Candidatus Cardinium hertigii'
2004
- A bacterial symbiont in the Bacteroidetes induces cytoplasmic incompatibility in the parasitoid wasp Encarsia pergandiella
2003
- Facultative bacterial symbionts in aphids confer resistance to parasitic wasps
2003
- Bacterial symbionts of pea aphids confer resistance to parasitic wasps
2003
- Does an autoparasitoid disrupt host suppression provided by a primary parasitoid?
2002
- Ovipositional preference and larval–early adult performance of two generalist lacewing predators of aphids in pecans
2002
- Developmental rates of two congeneric parasitoids, Encarsia formosa and E. pergandiella (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae), utilizing different egg provisioning strategies
2002
- Egg size, intrinsic competition, and lethal interference in the parasitoids Encarsia pergandiella and Encarsia formosa
2002
- Sex ratios of parasitic Hymenoptera with unusual life-histories
2002
- Yeast symbionts in the green lacewing, Chrysoperla sp.(Neuroptera: Chrysopidae)
2002
- Alleyne, Marianne, 116 Alomar, Oscar, 123 Andorno, A., 259
2002
- Distribution and phenotypic effects of a Cytophaga-relative bacterial symbiont in Encarsia parasitoids
2002
- Lethal interference competition in the whitefly parasitoids Eretmocerus eremicus and Encarsia sophia
2001
- Variation in the outcome of competition between two aphid species on pecan: plants matter more than predators
2001
- A newly discovered bacterium associated with parthenogenesis and a change in host selection behavior in parasitoid wasps
2001
- Evolution and behavioral ecology of heteronomous aphelinid parasitoids
2001
- Reproductive phenotypes of Encarsia parasitoids infected with a newly-discovered bacterial symbiont
2001
- Ovicide in the whitefly parasitoid, Encarsia formosa
2000
- Fringe benefits in arthropods
2000
- Population Dynamics of Pecan Aphids and Their Green Lacewing Predators in Insecticide-Free Pecans
2000
- The influence of parthenogenesis-inducing Wolbachia on the oviposition behaviour and sex-specific developmental requirements of autoparasitoid wasps.
1999
- Hyperparasitism by an exotic autoparasitoid: secondary host selection and the window of vulnerability of conspecific and native heterospecific hosts
1998
- Divergent Host Relationships of Males and Females in the Parasitoid Encarsia porteri (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae)
1996
- Courtship behavior, reproductive relationships, and allozyme patterns of three North American populations of Eretmocerus nr. californicus (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae …
1996
- Secondary host choice by the autoparasitoid Encarsia pergandiella
1996
- The population dynamics of the white peach scale and its parasitoids in a mulberry orchard in Campania, Italy
1995
- Heterotrophic parasitoids revisited: preliminary observations on Encarsia porteri (Encarsia porteri (Mercet)(Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae)
1995
- Ecological determinants of sex allocation in an autoparasitoid wasp
1995
- Heterotrophic parasitoids revisited: preliminary observations on Encarsia porteri (Mercet)(Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae).
1995
- Heteronomous hyperparasitoids, sex ratios and adaptations: a reply
1994
- Object-oriented simulation modeling in the biological in the biological control of Bemisia tabaci
1994
- Abstracts of Papers Presented at The International Workshop onBemisia Spp. October 3–7, 1994 Shoresh Hotel and Conference Center, Shoresh, Israel
1994
- Origin of males by genome loss in an autoparasitoid wasp
1993
- Sex allocation in a field population of an autoparasitoid
1993
- Sex ratios of heteronomous hyperparasitoids: adaptive or non-adaptive?
1992
- Male production induced by antibiotic treatment inEncarsia formosa (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae), an asexual species
1992
- Status of the biological control of pests
1992
- Sex ratio in an autoparasitoid, Encarsia pergandiella Howard (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae)
1991
- ENVIRONMENT UPDATE
1991
- Sex allocation and egg distribution of an autoparasitoid, Encarsia pergandiella (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae)
1989
- Suitability of stages of femaleEncarsia pergandiella [Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae] for development of conspecific male hyperprasites
1989
- Suitability of stages of female Encarsia pergandiella (Hym: Aphelinidae) for development of conspecific male hyperparasites
1989
- Benefits and risks of genetic engineering in agriculture
1989
- Sex ratio, egg distribution, and stage-specific development of an autoparasitoid, Encarsia pergandiella Howard (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae)
1987