Widespread Wolbachia infection in an insular radiation of damselflies (Odonata, Coenagrionidae)

Wolbachia is one of the most common endosymbionts found infecting arthropods. Theory predicts symbionts like Wolbachia will be more common in species radiations, as host shift events occur with greatest frequency between closely related species. Further, the presence of Wolbachia itself may engender reproductive isolation, and promote speciation of their hosts. Here we screened 178 individuals belonging to 30 species of the damselfly genera Nesobasis and Melanesobasis - species radiations endemic to the Fiji archipelago in the South Pacific - for Wolbachia, using multilocus sequence typing to characterize bacterial strains. Incidence of Wolbachia was 71% in Nesobasis and 40% in Melanesobasis, and prevalence was also high, with an average of 88% in the Nesobasis species screened. We identified a total of 25 Wolbachia strains, belonging to supergroups A, B and F, with some epidemic strains present in multiple species. The occurrence of Wolbachia in both males and females, and the similar global prevalence found in both sexes rules out any strong effect of Wolbachia on the primary sex-ratio, but are compatible with the phenotype of cytoplasmic incompatibility. Nesobasis has higher species richness than most endemic island damselfly genera, and we discuss the potential for endosymbiont-mediated speciation within this group.

Wolbachia detection: an assessment of standard PCR protocols

Wolbachia is a large monophyletic genus of intracellular bacteria, traditionally detected using PCR assays. Its considerable phylogenetic diversity and impact on arthropods and nematodes make it urgent to assess the efficiency of these screening protocols. The sensitivity and range of commonly used PCR primers and of a new set of 16S primers were evaluated on a wide range of hosts and Wolbachia strains. We show that certain primer sets are significantly more efficient than others but that no single protocol can ensure the specific detection of all known Wolbachia infections.

Rapid spread of male-killing Wolbachia in the butterfly Hypolimnas bolina

Reproductive parasites such as Wolbachia can spread through uninfected host populations by increasing the relative fitness of the infected maternal lineage. However, empirical estimates of how fast this process occurs are limited. Here we use nucleotide sequences of male-killing Wolbachia bacteria and co-inherited mitochondria to address this issue in the island butterfly Hypolimnas bolina. We show that infected specimens scattered throughout the species range harbour the same Wolbachia and mitochondrial DNA as inferred from 6337 bp of the bacterial genome and 2985 bp of the mitochondrial genome, suggesting this strain of Wolbachia has spread across the South Pacific Islands at most 3000 years ago, and probably much more recently.

What maintains noncytoplasmic incompatibility inducing Wolbachia in their hosts: a case study from a natural Drosophila yakuba population

Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) allows Wolbachia to invade hosts populations by specifically inducing sterility in crosses between infected males and uninfected females. In some species, non-CI inducing Wolbachia, that are thought to derive from CI-inducing ancestors, are common. In theory, the maintenance of such infections is not possible unless the bacterium is perfectly transmitted to offspring--and/or provides a fitness benefit to infected females. The present study aims to test this view by investigating a population of Drosophila yakuba from Gabon, West Africa. We did not find any evidence for CI using wild caught females. Infected females from the field transmitted the infection to 100% of their offspring. A positive effect on female fecundity was observed one generation after collecting, but this was not retrieved five generations later, using additional lines. Similarly, the presence of Wolbachia was found to affect mating behaviour, but the results of two experiments realized five generations apart were not consistent. Finally, Wolbachia was not found to affect sex ratio. Overall, our results would suggest that Wolbachia behaves like a neutral or nearly neutral trait in this species, and is maintained in the host by perfect maternal transmission.

Wolbachia segregation dynamics and levels of cytoplasmic incompatibility in Drosophila sechellia

In Drosophila sechellia, the endocellular bacterium Wolbachia induces cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI): in crosses involving infected males, a partial or complete embryonic mortality occurs unless the female bears the same Wolbachia. D. sechellia is known to harbour two Wolbachia variants, namely wSh and wSn, closely related to wHa and wNo, respectively, two strains infecting the populations of D. simulans from the Seychelles archipelago and New Caledonia. Strikingly, the two species show similar infection patterns: in D. sechellia, wSh can be present on its own or in double infection with wSn, but individuals carrying wSn only do not occur; in D. simulans, wHa can be present on its own or in double infection with wNo, but individuals carrying wNo only do not occur, or occur at very low frequency. Previous experiments on D. simulans showed that lines singly infected by wNo can be obtained by segregation, and stably maintained. Here we investigate this issue in D. sechellia through an 18 generation experiment, and show that wSn and wSh singly infected lines can arise by segregation. Using singly infected lines obtained in this experiment, we estimate the CI intensities of wSh and wSn in D. sechellia, and compare these to the CI intensities of the same Wolbachia injected into D. simulans. Our results do not suggest any consistent effect of the host species on the CI induced by wSh. On the contrary, it seems that wSn expression is repressed by host factors in D. sechellia.

Characterization of non-cytoplasmic incompatibility inducing Wolbachia in two continental African populations of Drosophila simulans

Wolbachia is an endocellular bacterium infecting arthropods and nematodes. In arthropods, it invades host populations through various mechanisms, affecting host reproduction, the most common of which being cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). CI is an embryonic mortality occurring when infected males mate with uninfected females or females infected by a different Wolbachia strain. This phenomenon is observed in Drosophila simulans, an intensively studied Wolbachia host, harbouring at least five distinct bacterial strains. In this study, we investigate various aspects of the Wolbachia infections occurring in two continental African populations of D. simulans: CI phenotype, phylogenetic position based on the wsp gene and associated mitochondrial haplotype. From the East African population (Tanzania), we show that (i) the siIII mitochondrial haplotype occurs in continental populations, which was unexpected based on the current views of D. simulans biogeography, (ii) the wKi strain (that rescues from CI while being unable to induce it) is very closely related to the CI-inducing strain wNo, (iii) wKi and wNo might not derive from a unique infection event, and (iv) wKi is likely to represent the same entity as the previously described wMa variant. In the West African population (Cameroon), the Wolbachia infection was found identical to the previously described wAu, which does not induce CI. This finding supports the view that wAu might be an ancient infection in D. simulans.

On the mod resc model and the evolution of Wolbachia compatibility types

Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) is induced by the endocellular bacterium Wolbachia. It results in an embryonic mortality occurring when infected males mate with uninfected females. The mechanism involved is currently unknown, but the mod resc model allows interpretation of all observations made so far. It postulates the existence of two bacterial functions: modification (mod) and rescue (resc). The mod function acts in the males' germline, before Wolbachia are shed from maturing sperm. If sperm is affected by mod, zygote development will fail unless resc is expressed in the egg. Interestingly, CI is also observed in crosses between infected males and infected females when the two partners bear different Wolbachia strains, demonstrating that mod and resc interact in a specific manner: Two Wolbachia strains are compatible with each other only if they harbor the same compatibility type. Here we focus on the evolutionary process involved in the emergence of new compatibility types from ancestral ones. We argue that new compatibility types are likely to evolve under a wider range of conditions than previously thought, through a two-step process. First, new mod variants can arise by mutation and spread by drift. This is possible because mod is expressed in males and Wolbachia is transmitted by females. Second, once such a mod variant achieves a certain frequency, it can create the conditions for the deterministic invasion of a new resc variant, allowing the invasion of a new mod resc pair. Furthermore, we show that a stable polymorphism might be maintained in natural populations, allowing the long-term existence of "suicidal" Wolbachia strains.