Conserved infections and reproductive phenotypes of Wolbachia symbionts in Asian tortrix moths.

ABSTRACT: Wolbachia is a ubiquitous endosymbiotic bacterium that manipulates insect reproduction. A notable feature of Wolbachia is male killing (MK), whereby sons of infected females are killed during development; however, the evolutionary processes by which Wolbachia acquired the MK ability remain unclear. The tea tortrix moth Homona magnanima (Tortricidae) harbours three non-MK Wolbachia strains (wHm-a, wHm-b and wHm-c) and an MK strain wHm-t. Although wHm-t and wHm-c are closely related, only wHm-t has an MK-associated prophage region. To understand the evolutionary processes underlying the emergence of MK wHm-t, we examined Wolbachia infections and phenotypes in 62 tortricid species collected from 39 localities across Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and Indonesia. PCR assays detected wHm-c relatives in

SUBMITTER: Arai H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10866051 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature