idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Nachrichten, Termine, Experten

Grafik: idw-Logo
Science Video Project
idw-Abo

idw-News App:

AppStore

Google Play Store



Instance:
Share on: 
05/16/2019 17:00

Bedmate Wanted: Who Hosted the First Bedbug?

Kim-Astrid Magister Pressestelle
Technische Universität Dresden

    An international team of scientists under the cooperative leadership of TUD biologist Prof. Klaus Reinhardt has published new findings on the evolution of bedbugs in the renowned scientific journal Current Biology.

    Over the course of more than fifteen years, researchers dared to embark on any adventure that would help them expand their collection of bedbug samples. This quest for the tiny beasts led them across the globe – from African bat caves to steep bird cliffs in Southeast Asia. Now, the time and effort invested has finally paid off: a new study by the international team of scientists led by Dr. Steffen Roth from the University Museum of Bergen (Norway) and the biologist Prof. Klaus Reinhardt from TU Dresden reveals insights into the evolution of bedbugs that surprised the scientists themselves.

    In their work, the scientists compared the DNA of dozens of bedbug species to understand the evolutionary relationships within the group as well as their relationship to humans. The first astonishing result concerns the age of the despised bloodsuckers: The study shows that bedbugs emerged roughly 115 million years ago. This means that they predate bats by more than 30 million years. Until now, it was believed that bats were the first bedbug hosts. It was also "very unexpected to see that evolutionarily older bedbugs must have been specialised in a single host type. Although we unfortunately do not know who the host was, it must have been even older than Tyrannosaurus rex", says Dr. Steffen Roth, head of the study.

    The team also discovered that two human parasites, the common and the tropical bedbug, are much older than humans themselves. This result contradicts the common notion that the division of humans into Homo erectus and Homo sapiens caused the split of the bedbug into two new species.

    Furthermore, the study shows that a new type of bedbug emerges every 500,000 years, but they continue to use their old hosts. Prof. Klaus Reinhardt predicts that this trend will continue: "It will certainly not be another half a million years before the next type of bloodsucker populates our beds, as many more people currently live on earth and the movement of animals and pets creates many more opportunities for contact. On that note, 'good night and sweet dreams.'”

    Image: Most bedbug species use bats as their host. Here, a North American species can be seen sucking blood from the nose of a bat. Contrary to previous assumptions, Klaus Reinhardt and his team were able to establish that bats were not the first hosts of these tiny bloodsuckers. Copyright: Mark A. Chappell, University of California, Riverside


    Contact for scientific information:

    Prof. Dr. Klaus Reinhardt
    Professor of Applied Zoology
    Tel.: 0351 463-37534
    Email: klaus.reinhardt@tu-dresden.de


    Original publication:

    Roth, Steffen, Reinhardt, Klaus et al.: "Bedbugs (Cimicidae) Evolved Before Their Bat Hosts and Did Not Co-Speciate with Ancient Humans" CURRENT-BIOLOGY-D-18-01741R1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.048


    Images

    Most bedbug species use bats as their host. Here, a North American species can be seen sucking blood from the nose of a bat.
    Most bedbug species use bats as their host. Here, a North American species can be seen sucking blood ...
    Copyright: Mark A. Chappell, University of California, Riverside
    None


    Criteria of this press release:
    Journalists, Scientists and scholars
    Biology
    transregional, national
    Research results, Scientific Publications
    English


     

    Most bedbug species use bats as their host. Here, a North American species can be seen sucking blood from the nose of a bat.


    For download

    x

    Help

    Search / advanced search of the idw archives
    Combination of search terms

    You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.

    Brackets

    You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).

    Phrases

    Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.

    Selection criteria

    You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).

    If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).