| distribution and evolution of bacteriophage wo in wolbachia, the endosymbiont causing sexual alterations in arthropods. | wolbachia are obligatory intracellular and maternally inherited bacteria, known to infect many species of arthropod. in this study, we discovered a bacteriophage-like genetic element in wolbachia, which was tentatively named bacteriophage wo. the phylogenetic tree based on phage wo genes of several wolbachia strains was not congruent with that based on chromosomal genes of the same strains, suggesting that phage wo was active and horizontally transmitted among various wolbachia strains. all the ... | 2000 | 11080372 |
| bacteriophage wo and virus-like particles in wolbachia, an endosymbiont of arthropods. | wolbachia are intracellular symbionts mainly found in arthropods, causing various sexual alterations on their hosts by unknown mechanisms. here we report the results that strongly suggest that wolbachia have virus-like particles of phage wo, which was previously identified as a prophage-like element in the wolbachia genome. wolbachia (strain wtai) infection in an insect was detected with the antibody against wsp, an outer surface protein of wolbachia, by fluorescence microscopy and immunoelectro ... | 2001 | 11355885 |
| diversity, distribution and specificity of wo phage infection in wolbachia of four insect species. | the bacteriophage wo was recently characterized in wolbachia, a strictly intracellular bacterium that causes several reproductive alterations in its arthropod hosts. to gain insights into the phage-wolbachia relationships, we studied the phage presence among wolbachia infecting four insect species sharing several wolbachia strains, two drosophila and two of their parasitoid wasps. based on the phage sequence of orf7, we identified five different phages in six wolbachia strains. among these five ... | 2004 | 15056362 |
| isolation and characterization of the bacteriophage wo from wolbachia, an arthropod endosymbiont. | wolbachia is a group of obligate symbiotic bacteria found in many insects and other arthropods. the presence of wolbachia alters reproduction in the host, but the mechanisms are unknown. molecular biological studies of wolbachia have delayed significantly, and one of the reasons is the lack of transformation techniques of this bacterium. in the present study, bacteriophage particles were isolated from wolbachia for the first time. the purified phage had an isometric head that was approximately 4 ... | 2004 | 15094394 |
| bacteriophage flux in endosymbionts (wolbachia): infection frequency, lateral transfer, and recombination rates. | the highly specialized genomes of bacterial endosymbionts typically lack one of the major contributors of genomic flux in the free-living microbial world-bacteriophages. this study yields three results that show bacteriophages have, to the contrary, been influential in the genome evolution of the most prevalent bacterial endosymbiont of invertebrates, wolbachia. first, we show that bacteriophage wo is more widespread in wolbachia than previously recognized, occurring in at least 89% (35/39) of t ... | 2004 | 15254259 |
| bacteriophage wo in wolbachia infecting terrestrial isopods. | wolbachia are maternally inherited intracellular alpha-proteobacteria that infect a wide range of arthropods. they are associated with a number of different reproductive phenotypes in arthropods and nematodes. in isopod crustacean, wolbachia are responsible for feminization of genetic males in many species, and for cytoplasmic incompatibility in two species. in this paper, we report the first detection of phage wo from wolbachia infecting terrestrial isopods. all wolbachia strains tested in this ... | 2005 | 16198306 |
| no evidence for bacteriophage wo orf7 correlation with wolbachia-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility in the culex pipiens complex (culicidae: diptera). | gene flow between populations of culex pipiens l. is relevant to observed differences in disease transmission, insecticide resistance, behavior, and physiology. intracellular wolbachia bacteria have been hypothesized to affect gene flow in insects. specifically, wolbachia cause a form of embryonic mortality known as cytoplasmic incompatibility (ci) in crosses between individuals with different wolbachia types. incompatibility in culex is exceptional in that it represents the most complex ci patt ... | 2005 | 16365997 |
| the tripartite associations between bacteriophage, wolbachia, and arthropods. | by manipulating arthropod reproduction worldwide, the heritable endosymbiont wolbachia has spread to pandemic levels. little is known about the microbial basis of cytoplasmic incompatibility (ci) except that bacterial densities and percentages of infected sperm cysts associate with incompatibility strength. the recent discovery of a temperate bacteriophage (wo-b) of wolbachia containing ankyrin-encoding genes and virulence factors has led to intensifying debate that bacteriophage wo-b induces ci ... | 2006 | 16710453 |
| bacteriophage wo-b and wolbachia in natural mosquito hosts: infection incidence, transmission mode and relative density. | bacteriophages of wolbachia bacteria have been proposed as a potential transformation tool for genetically modifying mosquito vectors. in this study, we report the presence of the wo-b class of wolbachia-associated phages among natural populations of several mosquito hosts. eighty-eight percent (22/25) of wolbachia-infected mosquito species surveyed were found to contain wo-b phages. wo-b phage orf7 sequence analysis suggested that a single strain of wo-b phage was found in most singly (23/24) o ... | 2006 | 16842419 |
| a survey of the bacteriophage wo in the endosymbiotic bacteria wolbachia. | bacteriophages are common viruses infecting prokaryotes. in addition to their deadly effect, phages are also involved in several evolutionary processes of bacteria, such as coding functional proteins potentially beneficial to them, or favoring horizontal gene transfer through transduction. the particular lifestyle of obligatory intracellular bacteria usually protects them from phage infection. however, wolbachia, an intracellular alpha-proteobacterium, infecting diverse arthropod and nematode sp ... | 2007 | 17095536 |
| wolbachia and bacteriophage wo-b density of wolbachia a-infected aedes albopictus mosquito. | wolbachia are maternally inherited symbiotic bacteria capable of inducing an extensive range of reproductive abnormalities in their hosts, including cytoplasmic incompatibility (ci). its density (concentration) is likely to influence the penetrance of ci in incompatible crosses. the variations of wolbachia density could also be linked with phage wo density. we determined the relative density (relative concentration) of prophage wo orf7 and wolbachia (phage-to-bacteria ratio) during early develop ... | 2009 | 19381483 |
| lateral phage transfer in obligate intracellular bacteria (wolbachia): verification from natural populations. | lateral transfer of mobile dna is a hallmark of bacteria with a free-living replicative stage; however, its significance in obligate intracellular bacteria and other heritable endosymbionts remains controversial. comparative sequence analyses from laboratory stocks infected with wolbachia pipientis provide some of the most compelling evidence that bacteriophage wo-b transfers laterally between infections of the same insect host. lateral transfer between coinfections, however, has been evaluated ... | 2010 | 19906794 |
| phage wo of wolbachia: lambda of the endosymbiont world. | the discovery of an extraordinarily high level of mobile elements in the genome of wolbachia, a widespread arthropod and nematode endosymbiont, suggests that this bacterium could be an excellent model for assessing the evolution and function of mobile dna in specialized bacteria. in this paper, we discuss how studies on the temperate bacteriophage wo of wolbachia have revealed unexpected levels of genomic flux and are challenging previously held views about the clonality of obligate intracellula ... | 2010 | 20083406 |
| decoupling of host-symbiont-phage coadaptations following transfer between insect species. | transferring endosymbiotic bacteria between different host species can perturb the coordinated regulation of the host and bacterial genomes. here we use the most common maternally transmitted bacteria, wolbachia pipientis, to test the consequences of host genetic background on infection densities and the processes underlying those changes in the parasitoid wasp genus nasonia. introgressing the genome of nasonia giraulti into the infected cytoplasm of n. vitripennis causes a two-order-of-magnitud ... | 2010 | 20944019 |
| infection incidence and relative density of the bacteriophage wo-b in aedes albopictus mosquitoes from fields in thailand. | we have used real-time quantitative pcr to measure, for the first time, the relative phage wo-b orf7 density and infection incidence in aedes albopictus mosquitoes from fields in thailand. our results showed that the infection incidence of phage wo-b in this mosquito, sampled from geographically different places in thailand, was 97.9%. average relative densities of the offspring were different when collected from diverse parts and reared under the same conditions in the laboratory. our results a ... | 2010 | 20981548 |
| a preliminary survey for wolbachia and bacteriophage wo infections in indian mosquitoes (diptera: culicidae). | maternally inherited wolbachia endosymbiotic bacteria are known to induce various kinds of reproductive alterations in their arthropod hosts. it has been proposed that this bacterium can be used as a tool for gene drive system in mosquitoes and also for the reduction of population size and modulating population age structure in order to reduce disease transmission. in the present study, we carried out a survey to determine the prevalence of wolbachia and its phage wo infection in indian mosquito ... | 2010 | 21399578 |
| survey of wolbachia and its phage wo in the uzifly exorista sorbillans (diptera: tachinidae). | wolbachia are cytoplasmically inherited alpha-proteobacteria well known for inducing a variety of reproductive abnormalities in the diverse arthropod hosts they infect. despite their obligate intracellular lifestyle which usually protects bacteria from phage infection, wolbachia harbor a widespread temperate phage called wo. evidences of horizontal phage transfers indicate that this phage could promote genetic exchanges between strains leading to evolutionary changes in the genomes of wolbachia, ... | 2011 | 21739251 |
| temperature affects the tripartite interactions between bacteriophage wo, wolbachia, and cytoplasmic incompatibility. | wolbachia infections are a model for understanding intracellular, bacterial symbioses. while the symbiosis is often studied from a binary perspective of host and bacteria, it is increasingly apparent that additional trophic levels can influence the symbiosis. for example, wolbachia in arthropods harbor a widespread temperate bacteriophage, termed wo, that forms virions and rampantly transfers between coinfections. here we test the hypothesis that temperatures at the extreme edges of an insect's ... | 2011 | 22194999 |
| Evolutionary genomics of a temperate bacteriophage in an obligate intracellular bacteria (Wolbachia). | Genome evolution of bacteria is usually influenced by ecology, such that bacteria with a free-living stage have large genomes and high rates of horizontal gene transfer, while obligate intracellular bacteria have small genomes with typically low amounts of gene exchange. However, recent studies indicate that obligate intracellular species that host-switch frequently harbor agents of horizontal transfer such as mobile elements. For example, the temperate double-stranded DNA bacteriophage WO in Wo ... | 2011 | 21949820 |
| molecular subgrouping of wolbachia and bacteriophage wo infection among some indian drosophila species. | | 2011 | 22227942 |