Supergroup F Wolbachia with extremely reduced genome: transition to obligate insect symbionts.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Wolbachia belong to highly abundant bacteria which are frequently found in invertebrate microbiomes and manifest by a broad spectrum of lifestyles from parasitism to mutualism. Wolbachia supergroup F is a particularly interesting clade as it gave rise to symbionts of both arthropods and nematodes, and some of its members are obligate mutualists. Investigations on evolutionary transitions among the different symbiotic stages have been hampered by a lack of the known diversity and genomic data for the supergroup F members.

Results

Based on amplicon screening, short- and long-read WGS approaches, and laser confocal microscopy, we characterize five new supergroup F Wolbachia strains from four chewing lice species. These strains reached different evolutionary stages an

SUBMITTER: Mahmood S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9903615 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature