John Jaenike is an

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and

evolutionary biologist Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life for ...

, and currently a professor at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

New York. Jaenike was an early proponent of the

Red Queen Hypothesis The Red Queen hypothesis is a hypothesis in evolutionary biology proposed in 1973, that species must constantly adapt, evolve, and proliferate in order to survive while pitted against ever-evolving opposing species. The hypothesis was intended t ...

, using the idea to explain the maintenance of sex. Jaenike is also known for his extensive work on

mushroom-feeding Drosophila Mushroom-feeding ''Drosophila'' (mycophagous ''Drosophila'') are a subset of ''Drosophila'' flies that have highly specific mushroom-breeding ecologies. Often these flies can tolerate toxic compounds from ''Amanita'' mushrooms. Species groups ...

and the evolution of their inherited bacterial symbionts ''

Wolbachia ''Wolbachia'' is a genus of intracellular bacteria that infects mainly arthropod species, including a high proportion of insects, and also some nematodes. It is one of the most common parasitic microbes, and is possibly the most common reproduct ...

'' and ''

Spiroplasma poulsonii ''Spiroplasma poulsonii'' are bacteria of the genus '' Spiroplasma'' that are commonly endosymbionts of flies. These bacteria live in the hemolymph (insect blood) of the flies, where they can act as reproductive manipulators or defensive symbiont ...

''.Unckless, R. L. and J. Jaenike. 2012. Maintenance of a male-killing Wolbachia in Drosophila innubila by male-killing dependent and male-killing independent mechanisms. Evolution 66: 678-689. In 2015, the trypanosomatid parasite ''

Jaenimonas drosophilae ''Jaenimonas drosophilae'' is a trypanosomatid parasite of mushroom-feeding flies, first characterized in ''Drosophila neotestacea'' and ''Drosophila falleni''. ''Jaenimonas'' takes up residence in the gut of the fly, and infection leads to reduc ...

'' was named in Jaenike's honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaenike, John Living people American ecologists Evolutionary biologists 1949 births Princeton University alumni

See also

References