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EXPRESSION OF CYTOPLASMIC INCOMPATIBILITY IN DROSOPHILA SIMULANS AND ITS IMPACT ON INFECTION FREQUENCIES AND DISTRIBUTION OF WOLBACHIA PIPIENTIS
Author(s) -
James Avis C.,
Ballard J. William O.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2000.tb00710.x
Subject(s) - biology , wolbachia , cytoplasmic incompatibility , haplotype , genetics , strain (injury) , phenotype , population , bacteria , genotype , gene , demography , sociology , anatomy
The aim of this study is to examine the expression of cytoplasmic incompatibility and investigate the distribution and population frequencies of Wolbachia pipientis strains in Drosophila simulans . Nucleotide sequence data from 16S rDNA and a Wolbachia surface protein coding sequence and cytoplasmic incompatibility assays identify four distinct Wolbachia strains: w Ha, w Ri, w Ma, and w Au. The levels of cytoplasmic incompatibility between six lines carrying these strains of bacteria and three control lines without bacteria are characterized. Flies infected with w Ha and w Ri are bidirectionally incompatible, and males that carry either strain can only successfully produce normal numbers of offspring with females carrying the same bacterial strain. Males infected with w Au do not express incompatibility. Males infected with the w Ma strain express intermediate incompatibility when mated to females with no bacteria and no incompatibility with females with any other Wolbachia strain. We conduct polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism assays to distinguish the strain of Wolbachia and the mitochondrial haplotype to survey populations for each type and associations between them. Drosophila simulans is known to have three major mitochondrial haplotypes ( si I, si II, and si III) and two subtypes ( si IIA and si IIB). All infected lines of the si I haplotype carry w Ha, w No, or both; w Ma and w No are closely related and it is not clear whether they are distinct strains or variants of the same strain. Infected lines with the si IIA haplotype harbor w Ri and the si IIB haplotype carries w Au. The w Ma infection is found in si III haplotype lines. The phenotypic expression of cytoplasmic incompatibility and its relation to between‐population differences in frequencies of Wolbachia infection are discussed.