Ecology Group, College of Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
PLoS One. 2018 Apr 25;13(4):e0195517. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195517. eCollection 2018.
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.
沃尔巴克氏体是地球上分布最广泛的细胞内细菌之一，据估计，在大多数经过调查的生态系统中，有 40%至 66%的节肢动物物种感染了沃尔巴克氏体。它们的重要性不仅在于其广泛的分布，还在于它们能够改变宿主的生殖生物学，这最终可能影响感染种群的遗传多样性和物种形成。在新西兰的动物群中尚未正式发现沃尔巴克氏体，而新西兰具有高度的特有生物多样性，这代表了我们对沃尔巴克氏体全球生物学理解的一个空白。我们使用宿主 DNA 的高通量测序（HTS）结合传统分子技术，鉴定出六种感染了沃尔巴克氏体的特有直翅目物种。此外，应用沃尔巴克氏体特异性引物对新西兰和引入的无脊椎动物进行短序列扩增，检测到另外 153 个个体感染了沃尔巴克氏体。从这些短距离 DNA 扩增产物中，我们从代表 10 个宿主物种的 86 个个体中获得了 ftsZ 基因区域的序列数据。使用本研究中获得的序列进行的系统发育分析表明，新西兰宿主中有两种不同的沃尔巴克氏体细菌谱系，属于公认的沃尔巴克氏体超级群（A 和 B）。这是在新西兰本土动物群中首次描述的沃尔巴克氏体实例，包括在感染直翅目昆虫的假定寄生蜂中检测到沃尔巴克氏体，这表明可能存在传播途径。我们检测到新西兰物种感染沃尔巴克氏体，为研究沃尔巴克氏体在当地的传播提供了机会，并探索了它们在新西兰无脊椎动物进化中的作用。
