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Gender-biased bacteria throw off an evolutionary balanceApril 2011 Sweet potato whiteflies This month, biologists reported that a bacterial infection has run rampant in populations of a major crop pest in the Southwest. The bacterium (called Rickettsia) is a close relative of the species that causes typhus in humans. Its host is the sweet potato whitefly, a tiny bug that can occur in large enough numbers to form visible clouds. Whiteflies suck the sap from plants and spread crop diseases, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in a single season. In just a few years, the percentage of southwestern whiteflies infected with Rickettsia has skyrocketed from 1% to more than 90%. Unfortunately, this is not the boon for local farmers that it might seem. Rickettsia dont sicken the whitefly; instead, the bacterium actively helps the pest spread and increase in numbers. Evolutionary theory accounts for this surprising observation and highlights how we might turn it in our favor.  Wheres the evolution?We are most familiar with bacteria that cause illness; however, a whole host of bacterial species are symbionts and provide benefits to their hosts. The advantage that Rickettsia provides to the whitefly is huge: infected whiteflies produce twice as many offspring as Rickettsia-free whiteflies, and these offspring are much more likely to survive to adulthood than the offspring of uninfected individuals. Why would one species be so benevolent towards another? The answer seems to lie in the evolutionary fitness of the bacterium. In this case, whats good for the host also happens to be good for the resident. Rickettsia are transmitted through the whitefly population from mother to offspring — not, for example, between bugs that alight on the same leaf. In terms of natural selection, this means that any bacterium that happened to have a gene version that benefitted its hosts survival and reproduction would be passed on to more new hosts. Through many generations, these