Complete Genome Sequence of the Wolbachia wAlbB Endosymbiont of Aedes albopictus. (1st February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sinha, Amit; Li, Zhiru; Sun, Luo; Carlow, Clotilde K S
• Editors: Cordaux, Richard
• Is Part Of: Genome biology and evolution. Volume 11:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 706
• Page End: 720
• Publication Date: 2019-02-01
• Subjects: symbiosis -- Aa23 -- mosquito -- PacBio -- prophage -- IS elements; Genomics -- Periodicals; Genes -- Periodicals; 572.8605
• DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evz025
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1759-6653

Abstract

Abstract: Wolbachia, an alpha-proteobacterium closely related to Rickettsia, is a maternally transmitted, intracellular symbiont of arthropods and nematodes. Aedes albopictus mosquitoes are naturally infected with Wolbachia strains w AlbA and w AlbB. Cell line Aa23 established from Ae. albopictus embryos retains only w AlbB and is a key model to study host–endosymbiont interactions. We have assembled the complete circular genome of w AlbB from the Aa23 cell line using long-read PacBio sequencing at 500× median coverage. The assembled circular chromosome is 1.48 megabases in size, an increase of more than 300 kb over the published draft w AlbB genome. The annotation of the genome identified 1, 205 protein coding genes, 34 tRNA, 3 rRNA, 1 tmRNA, and 3 other ncRNA loci. The long reads enabled sequencing over complex repeat regions which are difficult to resolve with short-read sequencing. Thirteen percent of the genome comprised insertion sequence elements distributed throughout the genome, some of which cause pseudogenization. Prophage WO genes encoding some essential components of phage particle assembly are missing, while the remainder are found in five prophage regions/WO-like islands or scattered around the genome. Orthology analysis identified a core proteome of 535 orthogroups across all completed Wolbachia genomes. The majority of proteins could be annotated using Pfam and eggNOG analyses, including ankyrins and components of the Type IV secretion system. KEGG analysis revealed the absence of five genes in w AlbB which are present in other Wolbachia . The availability of a complete circular chromosome from w AlbB will enable further biochemical, molecular, and genetic analyses on this strain and related Wolbachia .