Phylogeny and Density Dynamics of Wolbachia Infection of the Health Pest Paederus fuscipes Curtis (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae)

Abstract

The maternally inherited obligate intracellular bacteria Wolbachia infects the reproductive tissues of a wide range of arthropods and affects host reproduction. Wolbachia is a credible biocontrol agent for reducing the impact of diseases associated with arthropod vectors. Paederus fuscipes is a small staphylinid beetle that causes dermatitis linearis and conjunctivitis in humans when they come into contact with skin. Wolbachia occur in this beetle, but their relatedness to other Wolbachia, their infection dynamics, and their potential host effects remain unknown. In this study, we report the phylogenetic position and density dynamics of Wolbachia in P. fuscipes. The phylogeny of Wolbachia based on an analysis of MLST genotyping showed that the bacteria from P. fuscipes belong to supergroup B. Quantitative PCR indicated that the infection density in adults was higher than in any other life stage (egg, larva or pupa), and that reproductive tissue in adults had the highest infection densities, with similar densities in the sexes. These findings provide a starting point for understanding the Wolbachia infection dynamics in P. fuscipes, and interactions with other components of the microbiota.

Population Dynamics of Wolbachia in the Leafhopper Vector Yamatotettix flavovittatus (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae)

“…Variations in Wolbachia density across developmental stages have been reported in other insects, for instance, Wolbachia density in adults of the beetle Octodonta nipae (Maulik) was higher than that in the immature stages ( Ali et al 2018 ). This correlation between Wolbachia density and developmental stages has also been reported in the wasp H. hebetor ( Bagheri et al 2019 ) and the beetle Paederus fuscipes Curtis ( Ge et al 2020 ). To improve the accuracy of comparison of Wolbachia density among different developmental stage or tissues, future studies using relative qPCR to quantify the internal control gene in Y. flavovittatus are necessary.…”

Differences in microbiome composition and transcriptome profiles between male and female Paederus fuscipes harbouring pederin‐producing bacteria

“…As described previously (Ge et al, 2020; Karamipour et al, 2016; Li et al, 2018), qPCR was conducted using M5 HiPer Real‐time PCR Super mix (Mei5 Biotechnology, Beijing, China) to evaluate the relative density of PPB between males and females. Following these studies, the relative abundance of the bacterial gene (i.e., ketosynthase gene of PPB) was analysed using the comparative 2 −ΔΔCT method for gene expression normalization to the endogenous reference gene (i.e., β‐actin) of Paederus fuscipes .…”

“…Following these studies, the relative abundance of the bacterial gene (i.e., ketosynthase gene of PPB) was analysed using the comparative 2 −ΔΔCT method for gene expression normalization to the endogenous reference gene (i.e., β‐actin) of Paederus fuscipes . This result is synonymous with the number of PPB per host cell (Ge et al, 2020). The amplification efficiency of the primer pairs was assessed by using a CFX96™ real‐time PCR detection system from Bio–Rad.…”

The gut microbiome of solitary bees is mainly affected by pathogen assemblage and partially by land use

“…The co-occurrence of these two genera was also described in other insect’s gut microbiome like the cricket Gryllus veletis [ 78 ], although Pseudomonas was considered as a probable pathogen that varied its proportion with seasonality and according to Wolbachia ´s abundance. Interestingly, Ge et al, [ 79 ] found similar proportion of Pseudomonas and Wolbachia in the reproductive system of Paederus fuscipes (coleoptera) , where Pseudomonas was found to contribute to the defense from predators thanks to the production of a toxic compound (Pederin), without decreasing the performance of the hosts. Moreover, Wolbachia was found to cope with adverse conditions triggered by Pseudomonas .…”