Hypervariable prophage WO sequences describe an unexpected high number of Wolbachia variants in the mosquito Culex pipiens.

ABSTRACT: Wolbachia are maternally inherited endosymbiotic bacteria that infect many arthropod species and may induce cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) resulting in abortive embryonic development. Among all the described host species, mosquitoes of the Culex pipiens complex display the highest variability of CI crossing types. Paradoxically, searches for polymorphism in Wolbachia infecting strains and field populations hitherto failed or produced very few markers. Here, we show that an abundant source of the long-sought polymorphism lies in WO prophage sequences present in multiple copies dispersed in the genome of Wolbachia infecting C. pipiens (wPip). We identified up to 66 different Wolbachia variants in C. pipiens strains and field populations and no occurrence of superinfection was observed. At

SUBMITTER: Duron O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1560203 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature