Comparative Genomics of the Endosymbiont Cardinium Causing Reproductive Manipulation in Encarsia Parasitoid Wasps.

ABSTRACT: Many invertebrates harbor the vertically transmitted endosymbiotic bacterium Cardinium hertigii, and some display altered reproductive phenotypes due to manipulation by Cardinium. Despite their host impact, genomic information for reproductive manipulator strains of Cardinium is sparse. Of the three reproductive manipulation phenotypes Cardinium is known to induce in its hosts, only two genomes causing cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) are available, and genomes inducing other manipulation phenotypes are absent. In this study, we have sequenced and assembled four novel Cardinium genomes, three of which are associated with two different reproductive manipulation phenotypes, parthenogenesis induction and CI. Analysis of the genomes revealed that Cardinium associated with parasitoid wasp hosts

SUBMITTER: Schultz DL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12560110 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature