Hunter laboratory at the University of Arizona
Welcome
In the Hunter laboratory, we study the ecology and evolution of interactions between microbial symbionts and their insect hosts. We are currently studying the mechanisms of reproductive manipulation of Encarsia parasitoids by the symbiont Cardinium, and the transmission and fitness consequences of the environmentally-acquired Burkholderia on the leaf-footed bug Leptoglossus zonatus. We have recently concluded more than a decade of study on the population ecology of the symbiont Rickettsia in the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci.
In the Hunter laboratory, we study the ecology and evolution of interactions between microbial symbionts and their insect hosts. We are currently studying the mechanisms of reproductive manipulation of Encarsia parasitoids by the symbiont Cardinium, and the transmission and fitness consequences of the environmentally-acquired Burkholderia on the leaf-footed bug Leptoglossus zonatus. We have recently concluded more than a decade of study on the population ecology of the symbiont Rickettsia in the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci.