Wolbachia infection in leafhoppers and planthoppers: Diversity, density and geographic distribution in tropical rice agroecosystems

Abstract

Members of the genus Wolbachia are a group of endosymbiotic bacteria that infect a wide range of arthropods and cause reproductive alterations in their hosts. A survey of these endosymbionts in leafhoppers and planthoppers in rice agroecosystems from 20 provinces in 4 different geographic regions of Thailand was carried out during January 2012 to December 2013. Most species were collected from growing rice fields among 5 habitat types surveyed from the Central and the Northeast regions. Infections of Wolbachia were screened by using polymerase chain reaction with wsp, ftsZ, 16S rRNA and groE gene primers and distinguished between A and B supergroup using wsp primers. Species of 15 leafhoppers and 18 planthoppers were collected and identified with 1, 14, 2, 14, 1 and 1 sp. representing the family Aphrophoridae, Cicadellidae, Cixiidae, Delphacidae, Lophopidae and Meenoplidae, respectively. Wolbachia were detected in 1377 of 1849 individuals (74.5%) representing 17 of 33 species (51.5%) of leafhoppers and planthoppers. Wolbachia had not been previously reported from Oliarus sp., Pyrilla perpusilla, Sogatella kolophon and S. vibix. The relative densities of Wolbachia within each individual were determined using quantitative real-time PCR and the result showed that the small brown planthopper Laodelphax striatellus had the highest Wolbachia density. These findings indicated that Wolbachia are distributed throughout leafhoppers and planthoppers from Thailand, suggesting that Wolbachia dynamics in nature may be affected by ecological factors.