Parasites of vectors--Ixodiphagus hookeri and its Wolbachia symbionts in ticks in The Netherlands.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Ixodiphagus hookeri is a parasitic wasp of ixodid ticks around the world. It has been studied as a potential bio-control agent for several tick species. We suspected that the presence of Wolbachia infected I. hookeri eggs in ticks is responsible for incidental detection of Wolbachia DNA in tick samples.

Methods

The 28S rRNA and 16S rRNA genes of a specimen of I. hookeri was amplified and sequenced. PCR on part of the 28S rRNA gene was used to detect parasitic wasp DNA in 349 questing Ixodes ricinus ticks from various sampling sites. Furthermore, the wsp gene of Wolbachia was sequenced from the I. hookeri specimen and a subset of ticks was tested using this marker.

Results

Several sequences from tick specimens were identical to the Wolbachia sequence of the

SUBMITTER: Tijsse-Klasen E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3248373 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature