[News] Parasite Wasps Have Practiced Gene Therapy For A Hundred Million Years

[Moontanman]

Parasite Wasps Have Practiced Gene Therapy For A Hundred Million Years

ScienceDaily (Feb. 16, 2009) — Braconid parasite wasps and their caterpillar hosts form a unique host-parasite model: the wasps lay their eggs inside the caterpillars and simultaneously inject some viral particles to get around the host's defenses and control its physiology. The genes from these viral particles have now been identified in the wasp's own genome by a team at the Institut de recherche sur la biologie de l'insecte (CNRS/Université François-Rabelais Tours), in collaboration with a laboratory at University of Berne and Genoscope d'Evry.

 

Parasite Wasps Have Practiced Gene Therapy For A Hundred Million Years