Abstract
Wolbachia (Alphaproteobacteria) is an inherited endosymbiont of arthropods and filarial nematodes and was reported to be widespread across insect taxa. While Wolbachia's effects on host biology are not understood from most of these hosts, known Wolbachia-induced phenotypes cover a spectrum from obligate beneficial mutualism to reproductive manipulations and pathogenicity. Interestingly, data on Wolbachia within the most species-rich order of arthropods, the Coleoptera (beetles), are scarce. Therefore, we screened 128 species from seven beetle families (Buprestidae, Hydraenidae, Dytiscidae, Hydrophilidae, Gyrinidae, Haliplidae, and Noteridae) for the presence of Wolbachia. Our data show that, contrary to previous estimations, Wolbachia frequencies in beetles (31% overall) are comparable to the ones in other insects. In addition, we used Wolbachia MLST data and host phylogeny to explore the evolutionary history of Wolbachia strains from Hydraenidae, an aquatic lineage of beetles. Our data suggest that Wolbachia from Hydraenidae might be largely host genus specific and that Wolbachia strain phylogeny is not independent to that of its hosts. As this contrasts with most terrestrial Wolbachia-arthropod systems, one potential conclusion is that aquatic lifestyle of hosts may result in Wolbachia distribution patterns distinct from those of terrestrial hosts. Our data thus provide both insights into Wolbachia distribution among beetles in general and a first glimpse of Wolbachia distribution patterns among aquatic host lineages.
Highlights
Wolbachia is a genus of obligatory intracellular, inherited bacteria that is found in many arthropods and in filarial nematodes (Werren et al 2008)
Wolbachia frequencies were uniform (14–21%) across the families with ≥12 included species, except for Hydraenidae, in which Wolbachia was found in a proportion of 63% of the tested species (Table 1)
Supergroup F Wolbachia was present in two species of Buprestidae
Summary
Wolbachia is a genus of obligatory intracellular, inherited bacteria that is found in many arthropods and in filarial nematodes (Werren et al 2008). Wolbachia was estimated to be present in 40% of all species (Zug and Hammerstein 2012), making it the most successful endosymbiont on earth One key to this success is the ability of Wolbachia strains to invade and adapt to new hosts, aside from being transmitted vertically from female to progeny. Such horizontal transmissions are evident from a lack of cocladogenesis between Wolbachia and its hosts (O’Neill et al 1992; Baldo et al 2008), the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Determining the routes of Wolbachia invasions in natural arthropod populations is challenging, as patterns are usually blurred by regular gains and losses of Wolbachia, in addition to frequent horizontal transmissions (Baldo et al 2008; Gerth et al 2013)
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