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High incidences and similar patterns of Wolbachia infection in fig wasp communities from three different continents
Author(s) -
Chen LinLin,
Cook James M.,
Xiao Hui,
Hu HaoYuan,
Niu LiMing,
Huang DaWei
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
insect science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.991
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1744-7917
pISSN - 1672-9609
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7917.2009.01291.x
Subject(s) - wolbachia , biology , arthropod , phylogenetic tree , zoology , ecology , host (biology) , gene , genetics
Wolbachia are endosymbiotic bacteria that infect numerous arthropod species. Previous studies in Panama and Australia revealed that the majority of fig wasp species harbor Wolbachia infections, but that similar patterns of incidence have evolved independently with different wasp species and Wolbachia strains on the two continents. We found Wolbachia infections in 25/47 species (53%) of fig wasp associated with 25 species of Chinese figs. Phylogenetic analyses of Wolbachia wsp sequences indicated that very similar strains are not obviously found in either closely related or ecologically linked fig wasps species. The extremely high prevalence of Wolbachia in fig wasps (over 50% of species infected) is not constrained by geographical origin and is a recurrent theme of fig wasp/ Wolbachia interactions.