Wolbachia infection complexity among insects in the tropical rice‐field community

Abstract

Wolbachia are a group of intracellular bacteria that cause reproductive alterations in their arthropod hosts. Widely discordant host and Wolbachia phylogenies indicate that horizontal transmission of these bacteria among species sometimes occurs. A likely means of horizontal transfer is through the feeding relations of organisms within communities. Feeding interactions among insects within the rice-field insect community have been well documented in the past. Here, we present the results of a polymerase chain reaction-based survey and phylogenetic analysis of Wolbachia strains in the rice-field insect community of Thailand. Our field survey indicated that 49 of 209 (23.4%) rice-field insect species were infected with Wolbachia. Of the 49 infected species, 27 were members of two feeding complexes: (i) a group of 13 hoppers preyed on by 2 mirid species and parasitized by a fly species, and (ii) 2 lepidopteran pests parasitized by 9 wasp species. Wolbachia strains found in three hoppers, Recilia dorsalis, Nephotettix malayanus and Nisia nervosa, the two mirid predators, Cyrtorhinus lividipennis and Tytthus chinensis, and the fly parasitoid, Tomosvaryella subvirescens, were all in the same Wolbachia clade. In the second complex, the two lepidopteran pests, Cnaphalocrocis medinalis and Scirpophaga incertulas, were both infected with Wolbachia from the same clade, as was the parasitoid Tropobracon schoenobii. However, none of the other infected parasitoid species in this feeding complex was infected by Wolbachia from this clade. Mean (+/- SD) genetic distance of Wolbachia wsp sequences among interacting species pairs of the hopper feeding complex (0.118 +/- 0.091 nucleotide sequence differences), but not for the other two complexes, was significantly smaller than that between noninteracting species pairs (0.162 +/- 0.079 nucleotide sequence differences). Our results suggest that some feeding complexes, such as the hopper complex described here, could be an important means by which Wolbachia spreads among species within arthropod communities.

Variable Infection Frequency and High Diversity of Multiple Strains of Wolbachia pipientis in Perkinsiella Planthoppers

“…Typically, only one strain of Wolbachia is present in each species of delphacid planthopper (12,18,25). Here, we observe a variety of strains infecting different Perkinsiella populations.…”

“…The diversity of strains infecting these Perkinsiella species is much greater than the diversity observed for Wolbachia strains infecting other planthopper species (12,18,25). Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of the wsp gene indicates there are multiple groups of Wolbachia strains in Perkinsiella planthoppers (Fig.…”

Wolbachia variant that induces two distinct reproductive phenotypes in different hosts

“…There are double infections of Wolbachia in many species (eg, Werren et al, 1995;Jeyaprakash and Hoy, 2000;Kittayapong et al, 2003). It has been shown that double-infected males are incompatible with singleinfected females in some insects such as D. simulans (Merçot et al, 1995;Rousset and Solignac, 1995), Aedes albopictus (Sinkins et al, 1995), and Nasonia vitripennis (Perrot-Minnot et al, 1996).…”

Distribution and diversity of Wolbachia in different populations of the wheat aphid Sitobion miscanthi (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in China

“…Of the eighteen populations examined eleven were infected, four with only one and seven with two Wolbachia strains. Double infections (at least two Wolbachia strains found in one host individual) are only recorded in some homopteran species, such as whitefly (Nirgianaki et al, 2003) and the zig-zag leafhopper (Kittayapong et al, 2003). This is the first report of a double infection in aphids.…”

“…None of these species was infected with Wolbachia. Then Kittayapong et al (2003) investigated tropical rice-field community insects in Thailand. Forty-nine of 209 rice-field insect species were infected with Wolbachia.…”