Occurrence ofWolbachiain central European weevils: correlations with host systematics, ecology, and biology

Abstract

AbstractWe studied the occurrence ofWolbachiain relation to the systematics, ecology, and biology of 40 weevil species from central Europe. Identification ofWolbachiasupergroups and phylogeny was performed on the basis of16S rDNA,ftsZ,wsp, andhcpAsequences. Sixteen species (40%) were infected byWolbachia. Six of these possess only supergroup A (15% of all studied species, 37.5% of the infected species), and four harbored only supergroup B (10 and 25%, respectively). Six species were infected by both supergroups A and B or their genomes harbored parts of these two supergroups (15 and 37.5%, respectively). No differences betweenWolbachiasupergroup frequencies were detected. There was almost no correlation betweenWolbachiaphylogeny and host systematics and phylogeny at the level of subfamily and tribe, because the representatives of both supergroups were detected in all the studied multi‐species tribes.Wolbachiastrains were probably inherited from a common ancestor only in the case of the genusStrophosoma, where two of three analyzed species possessed bacteria which are genetically very close in all the studied genes. There was also only limited congruence between phylogenies obtained from the four studied genes. These results suggest horizontal transmission ofWolbachiastrains between species and recombination events between different strains. A significant correlation was detected between infected and uninfected species in relation to mobility (flying species were 2× more frequently infected than non‐flying species), foraging (polyphagous species were 2.5× less frequently infected than mono‐ or oligophagous species), and reproductive mode (parthenogenetic weevils were infected nearly 2× as often as bisexuals). No differences were detected between mesophilous and xerothermophilous species, nor between those inhabiting open areas vs. arboreal species. However, these results might have been influenced by common ancestry among the studied weevils. Because weevils include many plant pests of economic importance, it is possible to use these data in developing alternative, biology‐based strategies for controlling them.