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The article reports on a case study that examined the evolutionary effects of a bacterial symbiont that was introduced into a population of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Over a period of six years, the introduction of a symbiont of the bacteria Rickettsia dramatically increased the survival rate and fecundity of the host population in the southwestern U.S. While microbiologists have allegedly long known the importance of horizontal gene transfer between organisms, it has not been as commonly studied in multicellular organisms such as arthropods.