Dyson E A, Kamath M K, Hurst G D D
Department of Biology, University College London, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, UK.
Heredity (Edinb). 2002 Mar;88(3):166-71. doi: 10.1038/sj.hdy.6800021.
Inherited bacteria that kill male hosts during embryogenesis infect a wide range of insect species. In order to ascertain if there are patterns to host infection, with particular male killing bacteria specialising on particular taxa, we investigated the male killing trait in the butterfly Hypolimnas bolina. All-female broods were first reported in this species in the 1920s. Investigation of this system in the Fiji Islands revealed the causal agent of sex ratio distortion in H. bolina to be a male killing Wolbachia bacterium. This bacterium is identical in wsp and ftsZ sequence to a male killer in the butterfly Acraea encedon in Tanzania, suggesting it has moved between host species, yet retained its phenotype. The prevalence of the Wolbachia was calculated for three different island groups of Fiji, and found to vary significantly across the country. Antibiotics failed to cure either the male killing trait or the Wolbachia infection. The implications of these results are discussed.
在胚胎发育过程中杀死雄性宿主的遗传性细菌感染了广泛的昆虫物种。为了确定宿主感染是否存在模式，特别是某些雄性致死细菌是否专门针对特定的分类群，我们研究了苎麻珍蝶（Hypolimnas bolina）的雄性致死特性。20世纪20年代首次报道了该物种全雌性后代的情况。在斐济群岛对这个系统的研究表明，苎麻珍蝶性别比例扭曲的致病因子是一种雄性致死的沃尔巴克氏体细菌。这种细菌的wsp和ftsZ序列与坦桑尼亚苎麻珍蝶（Acraea encedon）中的一种雄性杀手完全相同，这表明它在宿主物种之间转移，但保留了其表型。计算了斐济三个不同岛屿组中沃尔巴克氏体的流行率，发现全国各地的流行率差异很大。抗生素未能治愈雄性致死特性或沃尔巴克氏体感染。讨论了这些结果的意义。
