Ghosts of symbionts past: the hidden history of the dynamic association between filarial nematodes and their Wolbachia endosymbionts.

ABSTRACT: Many, but not all, parasitic filarial nematodes (Onchocercidae) carry intracellular, maternally transmitted, alphaproteobacterial Wolbachia symbionts. The association between filarial nematodes and Wolbachia is often portrayed as mutualist, where the nematode is reliant on Wolbachia for an essential but unknown service. Wolbachia are targets for antifilarial chemotherapeutic interventions for human disease. Wolbachia of Onchocercidae derive from four of the major supergroups (C, D, F, and J) defined within the genus. We explored the evolutionary history of the filarial nematode-Wolbachia symbiosis in 22 nematode species, 16 of which have current Wolbachia infections, by screening the nematode nuclear genome sequences for nuclear Wolbachia transfers, fragments of the Wolbachia genome that h

SUBMITTER: Vancaester E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12693587 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature