Tracing horizontal Wolbachia movements among bees (Anthophila): a combined approach using multilocus sequence typing data and host phylogeny. Issue 24 (7th November 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gerth, Michael; Röthe, Juliane; Bleidorn, Christoph
• Is Part Of: Molecular ecology. Volume 22:Issue 24(2013)
• Page Start: 6149
• Page End: 6162
• Publication Date: 2013-11-07
• Subjects: Molecular ecology -- Periodicals; Molecular population biology -- Periodicals; 576
• DOI: 10.1111/mec.12549
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0962-1083

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="mec12549-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>The endosymbiotic bacterium <italic>Wolbachia</italic> enhances its spread via vertical transmission by generating reproductive effects in its hosts, most notably cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). Additionally, frequent interspecific horizontal transfer is evident from a lack of phylogenetic congruence between <italic>Wolbachia</italic> and its hosts. The mechanisms of this lateral transfer are largely unclear. To identify potential pathways of <italic>Wolbachia</italic> movements, we performed multilocus sequence typing of <italic>Wolbachia</italic> strains from bees (Anthophila). Using a host phylogeny and ecological data, we tested various models of horizontal endosymbiont transmission. In general, <italic>Wolbachia</italic> strains seem to be randomly distributed among bee hosts. Kleptoparasite‐host associations among bees as well as other ecological links could not be supported as sole basis for the spread of <italic>Wolbachia</italic>. However, cophylogenetic analyses and divergence time estimations suggest that <italic>Wolbachia</italic> may persist within a host lineage over considerable timescales and that strictly vertical transmission and subsequent random loss of infections across lineages may have had a greater impact on <italic>Wolbachia</italic> strain distribution than previously estimated. Although general conclusions about <italic>Wolbachia</italic> movements among arthropod hosts cannot be made, we present a framework by which precise assumptions about shared evolutionary histories of <italic>Wolbachia</italic> and a host taxon can be modelled and tested.</p> </abstract>