Horizontal transfer of Wolbachia between phylogenetically distant insect species by a naturally occurring mechanism
Horizontal transfer of Wolbachia between phylogenetically distant insect species by a naturally occurring mechanism
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DOI：
10.1016/s0960-9822(99)80139-0
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发表时间：
1999-03-25
期刊：
影响因子：
9.2
通讯作者：
Hubbard, SF
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Heath, BD;Butcher, RDJ;Hubbard, SF
沃尔巴克氏体是一种α -变形菌属，与多种节肢动物存在专性细胞内关联，估计包括所有昆虫物种的10-20%。沃尔巴克氏体是最近发现的多种“生殖寄生虫”[2]中的一种[3-9]，这种寄生虫以增强自身传播的方式操纵宿主的繁殖。沃尔巴克氏体感染对宿主种群动态的影响主要集中在其通过生殖隔离在物种形成中的可能作用[3,10,11]和作为生物控制剂[2,12,13]。虽然沃尔巴克氏体通常通过其宿主种群的母系进行垂直传播，但分子系统发育学有令人信服的证据表明，一定发生了广泛的水平（分类间）传播[1,9,15-17]。沃尔巴克氏体水平传播的一些最佳候选媒介是拟寄生虫[15]，它占所有昆虫种类的25%左右，并且来自广泛的类群[15]的攻击节肢动物[15]。在这项研究中，我们使用荧光显微镜和沃尔巴克氏体特异性引物进行PCR扩增，表明沃尔巴克氏体可以从其受感染的宿主（拟果蝇）传播给寄生蜂（Leptopilina boulardi），并随后在这种新型宿主物种中进行逐渐减弱的垂直传播。据我们所知，这些结果首次揭示了沃尔巴克氏体在系统发育上遥远的昆虫物种之间的自然水平转移途径。
Wolbachia is a genus of alpha-proteobacteria found in obligate intracellular association with a wide variety of arthropods, including an estimated 10-20% of all insect species [1]. Wolbachia represents one of a number of recently identified 'reproductive parasites' [2] which manipulate the reproduction of their hosts in ways that enhance their own transmission [3-9]. The influence of Wolbachia infection on the dynamics of host populations has focused considerable interest on its possible role in speciation through reproductive isolation [3,10,11] and as an agent of biological control [2,12,13]. Although Wolbachia normally undergoes vertical transmission through the maternal line of its host population [14], there is compelling evidence from molecular phylogenies that extensive horizontal (intertaxon) transmission must have occurred [1,9,15-17]. Some of the best candidate vectors for the horizontal transmission of Wolbachia are insect parasitoids [15], which comprise around 25% of all insect species and attack arthropods from an enormous range of taxa [18]. In this study, we used both fluorescence microscopy and PCR amplification with Wolbachia-specific primers to show that Wolbachia can be transmitted to a parasitic wasp (Leptopilina boulardi) from its infected host (Drosophila simulans) and subsequently undergo diminishing vertical transmission in this novel host species. These results are, to our knowledge, the first to reveal a natural horizontal transfer route for Wolbachia between phylogenetically distant insect species.