Wolbachia Host Shifts and Widespread Occurrence of Reproductive Manipulation Loci in European Butterflies.

ABSTRACT: Wolbachia is the most frequent bacterial endosymbiont of arthropods and nematodes. Although it is mostly vertically transmitted, from parent to offspring through the egg cytoplasm, horizontal transfer of Wolbachia is thought to be common over evolutionary timescales. However, the relative frequency of each transmission mechanism has not been studied systematically in closely related species. Additionally, while Wolbachia is generally regarded as a reproductive manipulator, it is unclear how frequently the symbiont induces such effects. In this study, we investigated the presence, phenotypes and phylogenetic relationships among Wolbachia strains in whole genome sequence data for 18 European butterfly sister-species pairs. We find that sister-species share Wolbachia strains more often than r

SUBMITTER: Toro-Delgado E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12573729 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature