Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Agricultural Technology, Thammasat University, Rangsit Centre, Khlong Nueng, Klong Luang, Pathum Thani, Thailand.
School of Crop Production Technology, Institute of Agricultural Technology, Suranaree University of Technology, Suranaree, Nakhon Ratchasima, Muang, Thailand.
Curr Microbiol. 2021 Apr;78(4):1367-1376. doi: 10.1007/s00284-021-02405-z. Epub 2021 Mar 1.
Wolbachia is a maternally inherited bacterium of insects that can alter the reproduction, biology, and fitness of the hosts. It was detected in natural populations of the Yamatotettix flavovittatus Matsumura leafhoppers, the vector of phytoplasma, which is responsible for sugarcane white leaf disease. Wolbachia infection prolongs the longevity of female leafhoppers and promotes a strong reproductive incompatibility; importantly, highly maternal transmission rate was observed. However, limited data on the diversity or strain typing of Wolbachia in Y. flavovittatus are available. We aimed here to detect the presence of Wolbachia in different populations by amplification of the wsp gene, which was then sequenced. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was also performed to explore the diversity of the Wolbachia strains. Based on the wsp sequences, Wolbachia in the Y. flavovittatus leafhoppers belonged to supergroup B, and formed a distinct evolutionary lineage; therefore, we designated this new specific strain as wYfla. The MLST profiles revealed ten potential new sequence types (STs) in different leafhopper populations. Multiple STs were detected in individual leafhoppers, among which the ST-wYfla1 strain was predominant. Furthermore, we obtained congruent results for the phylogenetic analyses using the wsp gene and MLST loci. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study characterizing Wolbachia strains in Y. flavovittatus. Our results reveal a novel strain and multiple STs of Wolbachia, and these data may prove useful in the exploitation of Wolbachia as a biological Y. flavovittatus control agent.
沃尔巴克氏体是一种昆虫的母系遗传细菌，它可以改变宿主的繁殖、生物学和适应性。它在 Yamatotettix flavovittatus Matsumura 叶蝉的自然种群中被检测到，叶蝉是植原体的载体，植原体是导致甘蔗白叶病的原因。沃尔巴克氏体感染延长了雌性叶蝉的寿命，并促进了强烈的生殖不相容性；重要的是，观察到了高度的母体传播率。然而，关于 Y. flavovittatus 中沃尔巴克氏体的多样性或菌株分型的数据有限。我们的目的是通过扩增 wsp 基因来检测不同种群中沃尔巴克氏体的存在，然后对其进行测序。还进行了多位点序列分型（MLST），以探索沃尔巴克氏体菌株的多样性。基于 wsp 序列，Y. flavovittatus 叶蝉中的沃尔巴克氏体属于超级群 B，并形成了一个独特的进化谱系；因此，我们将这种新的特定菌株命名为 wYfla。MLST 图谱显示，不同叶蝉种群中有 10 种潜在的新序列类型（ST）。在单个叶蝉中检测到多个 ST，其中 ST-wYfla1 菌株占优势。此外，我们使用 wsp 基因和 MLST 基因座进行的系统发育分析也得到了一致的结果。据我们所知，这是首次对 Y. flavovittatus 中的沃尔巴克氏体菌株进行特征描述。我们的结果揭示了一种新的沃尔巴克氏体菌株和多个 ST，这些数据可能有助于将沃尔巴克氏体作为一种生物 Y. flavovittatus 控制剂进行开发利用。
