Genomes of Candidatus Wolbachia bourtzisii wDacA and Candidatus Wolbachia pipientis wDacB from the Cochineal Insect Dactylopius coccus (Hemiptera: Dactylopiidae)

Abstract

Dactylopius species, known as cochineal insects, are the source of the carminic acid dye used worldwide. The presence of two Wolbachia strains in Dactylopius coccus from Mexico was revealed by PCR amplification of wsp and sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. A metagenome analysis recovered the genome sequences of Candidatus Wolbachia bourtzisii wDacA (supergroup A) and Candidatus Wolbachia pipientis wDacB (supergroup B). Genome read coverage, as well as 16S rRNA clone sequencing, revealed that wDacB was more abundant than wDacA. The strains shared similar predicted metabolic capabilities that are common to Wolbachia, including riboflavin, ubiquinone, and heme biosynthesis, but lacked other vitamin and cofactor biosynthesis as well as glycolysis, the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway, and sugar uptake systems. A complete tricarboxylic acid cycle and gluconeogenesis were predicted as well as limited amino acid biosynthesis. Uptake and catabolism of proline were evidenced in Dactylopius Wolbachia strains. Both strains possessed WO-like phage regions and type I and type IV secretion systems. Several efflux systems found suggested the existence of metal toxicity within their host. Besides already described putative virulence factors like ankyrin domain proteins, VlrC homologs, and patatin-like proteins, putative novel virulence factors related to those found in intracellular pathogens like Legionella and Mycobacterium are highlighted for the first time in Wolbachia. Candidate genes identified in other Wolbachia that are likely involved in cytoplasmic incompatibility were found in wDacB but not in wDacA.

Candidatus Dactylopiibacterium carminicum, a Nitrogen-Fixing Symbiont of Dactylopius Cochineal Insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea: Dactylopiidae)

“…Cochineal insects additionally contain Wolbachia ( Ramírez-Puebla etal. 2015 , 2016 ), Spiroplasma (our unpublished results), fungi ( Vera-Ponce de León etal. 2016 ) and proteobacteria commonly associated with plants ( James etal.…”

“…For the third metagenome, obtained with Illumina, DNA was recovered from macerated organs including ovaries, guts and Malpighian tubules from 40 females. Details of the dissection and extraction procedure were as described in Ramírez-Puebla etal. (2016) and Vera-Ponce de León etal.…”

A Tangled Web: Origins of Reproductive Parasitism

“…Consistent with our prior analyses, complete pLbAR_38 homologs are not present in other organisms, though certain domains are highly similar to proteins from diverse intracellular bacteria as well as some eukaryotes. This evolutionary mosaicism across proteins from diverse bacteria is accentuated by high similarity across a large portion of pLbAR_38 and proteins from three recently sequenced Wolbachia genomes: w DacB ( Ramirez-Puebla et al. 2016 ), w Stri, and w VulC- f ( Leclercq et al.…”

A bioinformatics approach to identifyingWolbachiainfections in arthropods

“…Our results are mostly consistent with previously reported phylogenetic relationships. Previously, C. chinensis, D. coccus, and D. simulans have been found to be infected with A and/or B strains ( Kondo, Shimada & Fukatsu, 1999 ; Kondo et al, 2002 ; Riegler et al, 2004 ; Ellegaard et al, 2013 ; Ramirez-Puebla et al, 2016 ). Here, evidence of both A and B supergroup strains was found in D. simulans ( Fig.…”