Masui S, Kuroiwa H, Sasaki T, Inui M, Kuroiwa T, Ishikawa H
Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2001 May 25;283(5):1099-104. doi: 10.1006/bbrc.2001.4906.
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 immunoelectron-microscopy for the first time. Virus-like particles in Wolbachia were observed by electron-microscopy. The 0.22-microm filtrate of insect ovary contained DAPI-positive particles, and PCR analysis demonstrated that a phage WO DNA passed through the filter while Wolbachia DNA were eliminated, suggesting that the DAPI-positive particles were phage WO.
沃尔巴克氏体是主要存在于节肢动物体内的细胞内共生菌，通过未知机制对其宿主造成各种性别改变。在此我们报告的结果有力地表明，沃尔巴克氏体具有噬菌体WO的病毒样颗粒，噬菌体WO先前在沃尔巴克氏体基因组中被鉴定为类原噬菌体元件。首次通过荧光显微镜和免疫电子显微镜，用针对沃尔巴克氏体表面蛋白Wsp的抗体检测了昆虫体内的沃尔巴克氏体（wTai株）感染。通过电子显微镜观察到了沃尔巴克氏体中的病毒样颗粒。昆虫卵巢的0.22微米滤液含有DAPI阳性颗粒，PCR分析表明，噬菌体WO DNA通过了过滤器，而沃尔巴克氏体DNA被去除，这表明DAPI阳性颗粒是噬菌体WO。
