Muhammad Z Ahmed, PhD

Contact Information
Postdoctoral Associate
Tropical Research and Education Center
University of Florida
18905 SW 280th Street
Homestead, FL 33031
Phone: (832) 819-3318
zaheerento[at]gmail.com
zaheerento[at]ufl.edu
Group Activities

Recent Publications

Recent paper
Ahmed et al. 2016 (BMC Evolutionary Biology) reveals inter-specific, inter-generic, inter-familial, and inter-ordinal horizontal transmission of Wolbachia strains, without discernible geographic patterns. The divergence time analysis in their paper reveal that Wolbachia is recently (22.6–4.7 mya, 95 % HPD) introduced in Lepidoptera.  In addition, analysis of nine Lepidoptera genomes (Bombyx mori, Danaus plexippus, Heliconius melpomene, Manduca sexta, Melitaea cinxia, Papilio glaucus, P. polytes, P. xuthus and Plutella xylostella) in their paper yield one possible instance of Wolbachia LGT. This study demonstrates interesting dynamics of this remarkable and influential microorganism.
Ahmed et al. 2015 (PLOS Pathogens) reveals how by allowing horizontal transmission of Wolbachia endosymbionts, parasitoids can inadvertently enhance the fitness of the targeted pest species.
Ahmed et al. 2015 (Florida Entomologist) reports recent invasion of papaya mealybug in Asia and Africa.
Ahmed et al. 2015 (BioScience) provides an interesting comparison of postdocs standards in China and the U.S.
 Weinert LA, ... Ahmed et al. 2015 (Proceeding of the royal society of london B) estimates  incidences of bacterial endosymbionts in terrestrial arthropods.
Ahmed et al. 2015 (Frontiers in Zoology) performed comprehensive survey of Wolbachia infection in Lepidoptera  and provides evidence that climate and geography are strong predictors of infection frequency.
Ahmed 2016 (The Scientist) highlights postdoc crisis in the U.S. and China.
Other Publications

RESEARCH PROFILES: Googlescholar | Institute page | LinkedIn | ResearchGate | ResearcherID | Academia | ORCID      

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