Complete WO phage sequences reveal their dynamic evolutionary trajectories and putative functional elements required for integration into the Wolbachia genome.

ABSTRACT: Wolbachia endosymbionts are ubiquitously found in diverse insects including many medical and hygienic pests, causing a variety of reproductive phenotypes, such as cytoplasmic incompatibility, and thereby efficiently spreading in host insect populations. Recently, Wolbachia-mediated approaches to pest control and management have been proposed, but the application of these approaches has been hindered by the lack of genetic transformation techniques for symbiotic bacteria. Here, we report the genome and structure of active bacteriophages from a Wolbachia endosymbiont. From the Wolbachia strain wCauB infecting the moth Ephestia kuehniella two closely related WO prophages, WOcauB2 of 43,016 bp with 47 open reading frames (ORFs) and WOcauB3 of 45,078 bp with 46 ORFs, were characterized. In each

SUBMITTER: Tanaka K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2737910 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature