In:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 106, No. 14 ( 2009-04-07), p. 5725-5730
Abstract:
The obligate intracellular bacterium Wolbachia pipientis infects around 20% of all insect species. It is maternally inherited and induces reproductive alterations of insect populations by male killing, feminization, parthenogenesis, or cytoplasmic incompatibility. Here, we present the 1,445,873-bp genome of W. pipientis strain w Ri that induces very strong cytoplasmic incompatibility in its natural host Drosophila simulans . A comparison with the previously sequenced genome of W. pipientis strain w Mel from Drosophila melanogaster identified 35 breakpoints associated with mobile elements and repeated sequences that are stable in Drosophila lines transinfected with w Ri. Additionally, 450 genes with orthologs in w Ri and w Mel were sequenced from the W. pipientis strain w Uni, responsible for the induction of parthenogenesis in the parasitoid wasp Muscidifurax uniraptor . The comparison of these A-group Wolbachia strains uncovered the most highly recombining intracellular bacterial genomes known to date. This was manifested in a 500-fold variation in sequence divergences at synonymous sites, with different genes and gene segments supporting different strain relationships. The substitution-frequency profile resembled that of Neisseria meningitidis , which is characterized by rampant intraspecies recombination, rather than that of Rickettsia , where genes mostly diverge by nucleotide substitutions. The data further revealed diversification of ankyrin repeat genes by short tandem duplications and provided examples of horizontal gene transfer across A- and B-group strains that infect D. simulans . These results suggest that the transmission dynamics of Wolbachia and the opportunity for coinfections have created a freely recombining intracellular bacterial community with mosaic genomes.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0027-8424
,
1091-6490
DOI:
10.1073/pnas.0810753106
Language:
English
Publisher:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publication Date:
2009
detail.hit.zdb_id:
209104-5
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1461794-8
SSG:
11
SSG:
12
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