Is Aporia crataegi unsuitable host of Wolbachia symbionts?

Abstract

The Black-veined White Aporia crataegi (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) is a trans-Palearctic species causing damage to various fruit and berry crops. Here we analyzed Wolbachia infection in A. crataegi populations. Wolbachia bacteria are maternally transmitted intracellular symbionts of many arthropods, including numerous Lepidoptera. We have studied 376 samples of A. crataegi collected in 10 regions of Russia from the Far East to Kaliningrad. Wolbachia prevalence was very low; only eight Wolbachia-positive specimens of A. crataegi were detected in Yakutia, Republic of Buryatia, Sverdlovsk and Kaliningrad Provinces, and no infection was found in other localities. Two Wolbachia haplotypes, ST-19 and ST-109, from A and B supergroups respectively, were identified using the multilocus sequence typing (MLST) protocol. These haplotypes were also previously reported in different lepidopteran species. Both Wolbachia haplotypes were associated with the same mtDNA haplotype (as inferred from the cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene) of A. crataegi, and ST-19 with two mtDNA haplotypes. This incongruence of maternally inherited agents indicates independent cases of the bacteria acquisition in A. crataegi history. The above data suggest that Wolbachia can infect Aporia crataegi but cannot establish in the host populations.

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“…For example, in Dendrolimus superans, a high level of infection with Wolbachia (69-100 %) has been shown to be maintained in geographically distant populations for several years (Bykov et al, 2020). For Aporia crataegi, the frequency of Wolbachia occurrence was very low: out of 376 samples collected in 10 regions of Russia, only eight Wolbachiapositive insects were found in Yakutia, Buryatia, Sverdlovsk and Kaliningrad Regions (Bykov et al, 2021). In Loxostege sticticalis, the prevalence of Wolbachia varied from 21 to 40 % in Asian and from 0 to 47 % in European parts of Russia (Malysh et al, 2020).…”