Different continent, different species, different habitats, and different habits, but the collections of spring bumblebee queens for lab colonies has been fun!
A study documenting how differential expression patterns may underlie genotype-by-genotype specificity in host-parasite systems has just been published by PNAS. The early online addition can be found here.
2013 Publication update: Heterogeneity in infection outcome
A review paper for the journal Parasites and Immunology by Ben Sadd and Seth Barribeau has been accepted. This review outlines past and current work on the bumblebee-trypanosome system, with a particular focus on how different factors feed into the outcome of infections, as measured by infection success, prevalence, or virulence. While the emphasis is on the bumblebee-trypanosome system the general message is that the tremendous context dependency of infection outcomes must be embraced by anyone interested in or researching host-parasite interactions. The abstract of this article can be found at this link.
Sadd BM & Barribeau SM (in press) Heterogeneity in infection outcome: lessons from a bumblebee-trypanosome system. Parasite Immunology