Abstract
Wolbachia is an obligatory intracellular bacterium which often manipulates the reproduction of its insect and isopod hosts. In contrast, Wolbachia is an essential symbiont in filarial nematodes. Lately, Wolbachia has been implicated in genomic imprinting of host DNA through cytosine methylation. The importance of DNA methylation in cell fate and biology calls for in depth studing of putative methylation-related genes. We present a molecular and phylogenetic analysis of a putative DNA adenine methyltransferase encoded by a prophage in the Wolbachia genome. Two slightly different copies of the gene, met1 and met2, exhibit a different distribution over various Wolbachia strains. The met2 gene is present in the majority of strains, in wAu, however, it contains a frameshift caused by a 2 bp deletion. Phylogenetic analysis of the met2 DNA sequences suggests a long association of the gene with the Wolbachia host strains. In addition, our analysis provides evidence for previously unnoticed multiple infections, the detection of which is critical for the molecular elucidation of modification and/or rescue mechanism of cytoplasmic incompatibility.
Highlights
Wolbachia pipientis is an obligate intracellular symbiont belonging to the a-proteobacteria
Different Wolbachia strains of known cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) phenotype (Table 1) were screened for the presence of the WO methyltransferase-like genes in order to test for a possible correlation with the CI phenotype
The release of the first Wolbachia genome revealed that it contains two DNA methyltransferase genes met1 and met2, encoded by two prophages, WO-A and WO-B respectively [8]. This finding is intriguing in the light of the fact that Wolbachiainduced CI involves modification of the insect host chromosome [40]
Summary
Wolbachia pipientis is an obligate intracellular symbiont belonging to the a-proteobacteria. It is thought to be present in an estimated 66% of all insect species, including disease vectors of animals and plants [1]. It has been found in terrestrial isopods, spiders, mites, springtails and nematodes. The phage genome includes ORFs coding for capsid proteins, baseplate assembly proteins, integrase genes, several ankyrin-like proteins, as well as a potential methyltransferase. Sequence analysis indicated that this phage genome includes ORFs coding for a DNA packaging protein, capsid proteins, baseplate assembly proteins, tail structural proteins and for several putative toxin-like secretory proteins [6,7]
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