Various infection status and molecular evidence for horizontal transmission and recombination of Wolbachia and Cardinium among rice planthoppers and related species. (29th August 2012)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Kai‐Jun; Han, Xiao; Hong, Xiao‐Yue; Zhu‐Salzman, Keyan
• Is Part Of: Insect science. Volume 20:Number 3(2013:Jun.)
• Page Start: 329
• Page End: 344
• Publication Date: 2012-08-29
• Subjects: Insects -- Periodicals; Entomology -- Periodicals; 595.705
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-7917.2012.01537.x
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1672-9609

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <p> <italic>Wolbachia</italic> and <italic>Cardinium</italic> are widely distributed and are considered important for their ability to disturb reproduction and affect other fitness‐related traits of their hosts. By using multilocus sequence typing (MLST), RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) and 16S ribosomal DNA gene sequencing methods, we extensively surveyed <italic>Wolbachia</italic> and <italic>Cardinium</italic> infection status of four predominant rice planthoppers and one kind of leafhopper in different rice fields. The results demonstrated that <italic>Sogatella furcifera</italic> (Horváth) and <italic>Laodelphax striatellus</italic> (Fallén) were infected with the same <italic>Wolbachia</italic> strain (<italic>w</italic>Stri), while <italic>Nilaparvata lugens</italic> (Stål) and its closely related species <italic>Nilaparvata muiri</italic> China were infected with two phylogeneticlly distant strains, <italic>w</italic>Lug and <italic>w</italic>Mui, respectively. Three new <italic>Wolbachia</italic> strains (provisionally named <italic>w</italic>Mfas1, <italic>w</italic>Mfas2 and <italic>w</italic>Mfas3) were detected in the leafhopper <italic>Macrosteles fascifrons</italic> (Stål). Only <italic>S. furcifera</italic> was co‐infected with <italic>Cardinium</italic>, which indicated that the distribution of <italic>Cardinium</italic> in these rice planthoppers was narrower than that of <italic>Wolbachia</italic>. Unambiguous intragenic recombination events among these <italic>Wolbachia</italic> strains and incongruent phylogenetic relationships show that the connections between different <italic>Wolbachia</italic> strains and hosts were more complex than we expected. These results suggest that horizontal transmission and host associated specialization are two factors affecting <italic>Wolbachia</italic> and <italic>Cardinium</italic> infections among planthoppers and their related species.</p> </abstract>