1. First detection of Wolbachia in the New Zealand biota
- Author
-
Steven A. Trewick, David A. Wheeler, Mary Morgan-Richards, and Benjamin Bridgeman
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,0301 basic medicine ,Topography ,Fauna ,Wasps ,Biodiversity ,lcsh:Medicine ,01 natural sciences ,Geographical locations ,Invertebrate Genomics ,Medicine and Health Sciences ,lcsh:Science ,reproductive and urinary physiology ,Phylogeny ,Islands ,Multidisciplinary ,biology ,Phylogenetic tree ,Database and informatics methods ,Sequence analysis ,Eukaryota ,High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ,Genomics ,Biological Evolution ,Biota ,Insects ,Wolbachia ,Research Article ,DNA, Bacterial ,Arthropoda ,Bioinformatics ,Oceania ,010603 evolutionary biology ,DNA sequencing ,03 medical and health sciences ,Bacterial Proteins ,parasitic diseases ,Parasitic Diseases ,Genetics ,Animals ,DNA sequence analysis ,Landforms ,Genetic diversity ,Bacteria ,Host (biology) ,lcsh:R ,Organisms ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Computational Biology ,Correction ,Geomorphology ,Bayes Theorem ,biochemical phenomena, metabolism, and nutrition ,biology.organism_classification ,Invertebrates ,Research and analysis methods ,030104 developmental biology ,Animal Genomics ,Evolutionary biology ,Earth Sciences ,bacteria ,Orthoptera ,lcsh:Q ,Arthropod ,People and places ,New Zealand - Abstract
Wolbachia is one of the most widespread intracellular bacteria on earth, estimated to infect between 40 and 66% of arthropod species in most ecosystems that have been surveyed. Their significance rests not only in their vast distribution, but also in their ability to modify the reproductive biology of their hosts, which can ultimately affect genetic diversity and speciation of infected populations. Wolbachia has yet to be formally identified in the fauna of New Zealand which has high levels of endemic biodiversity and this represents a gap in our understanding of the global biology of Wolbachia. Using High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) of host DNA in conjunction with traditional molecular techniques we identified six endemic Orthoptera species that were positive for Wolbachia infection. In addition, short-sequence amplification with Wolbachia specific primers applied to New Zealand and introduced invertebrates detected a further 153 individuals positive for Wolbachia. From these short-range DNA amplification products sequence data was obtained for the ftsZ gene region from 86 individuals representing 10 host species. Phylogenetic analysis using the sequences obtained in this study reveals that there are two distinct Wolbachia bacteria lineages in New Zealand hosts belonging to recognised Wolbachia supergroups (A and B). These represent the first described instances of Wolbachia in the New Zealand native fauna, including detection in putative parasitoids of infected Orthoptera suggesting a possible transmission path. Our detection of Wolbachia infections of New Zealand species provides the opportunity to study local transmission of Wolbachia and explore their role in the evolution of New Zealand invertebrates.
- Published
- 2017