The Wolbachia Project: A symbiotic relationship between researchers and students
Over the last 20 years, thousands of high school and undergraduate students have experienced what it is like to be a scientist thanks to “Discover the Microbes Within! The Wolbachia Project,” an immersive, hands-on lab experience that engages students in nature and real-world research. During this outreach endeavor, students and citizen scientists—including Penn State undergraduates—take part in evolutionary problem-solving around the identity of insects and the microbes that live inside them.
The project is named for the bacterium Wolbachia pipientis, which lives within the cells of about half the world’s arthropods—including insects, spiders, mites, and crustaceans—in either a parasitic or a mutually beneficial “symbiotic” relationship. Because of Wolbachia’s ability to manipulate arthropod reproduction, it may be a promising tool to control mosquito-borne diseases.
As part of the project, participants first identify arthropod species in their local community. They then use simple reagents and equipment provided by the project to isolate DNA to discover if the arthropods are infected with Wolbachia bacterial symbionts and to determine the relatedness of these arthropod and Wolbachia strains to other sequences in the national genetic database. Finally, they can publish their results in the Wolbachia Project Database to communicate their findings to the scientific community.
Both the Penn State One Health Microbiome Center and industry partners like MiniOne and Qiagen support the project by providing free reagents, DNA sequencing, and equipment loans to classrooms.
“Over the past two years at Penn State, we have worked with over 200 teachers, and that equates to over 10,000 students that they represent,” said Sarah Bordenstein, associate research professor of biology and director of the project. “We work with teachers in 45 states across the US, and we have partners in about 20 countries.”