Zanganeh Mohadeseh, Fathipour Yaghoub, Hoffmann Ary, Mehrabadi Mohammad
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
School of BioSciences, Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
Pest Manag Sci. 2025 Jul 10. doi: 10.1002/ps.8914.
Wolbachia are the most common intracellular symbiont in invertebrates primarily found in the reproductive tissues of their hosts inducing various host phenotypes such as cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) that can affect their persistence and spread in host populations. This study explores the presence and likely impact of Wolbachia bacteria in the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), Diaphorina citri.
We detected Wolbachia in populations of ACP collected from Roodan (Ro) and Jahrom (Ja) in Iran and quantified their titers in different stages and tissues. Wolbachia titers were higher in the Ja population than the Ro population across stages and tissues. In both populations Wolbachia showed perfect vertical transmission. Based on the ftsZ gene, ACP Wolbachia belong to supergroup B. Using tetracycline treatment, we eliminated Wolbachia from ACP adults. However, the cured insects did not breed, preventing the establishment a Wolbachia-free line. We also crossed the Ja and Ro populations reciprocally and surprisingly found that the resultant eggs did not hatch although crosses of males and females within populations showed normal hatching. This suggests a bidirectional CI phenotype, likely as a result of different Wolbachia infections in the two populations. To test Wolbachia divergence further, we used quantitative polymerase chain reaction high-resolution melting analysis targeting the ftsZ gene followed by ftsZ sequence analysis, which revealed differences in the Wolbachia strains from the two ACP populations. To characterize the reproductive phenotype further and consider its potential use to suppress ACP populations, we varied the proportions of males and females from the different populations and released them on lemon seedlings where hatch rates were recorded. The hatch rates varied from 84.85 ± 1.8% in populations with an equal number of ♀ and ♂ from the Ro population to a low of 2.02 ± 1.7% where there was a ratio of 1:1:10 (♀Ro:♂Ro:♂Ja) present, reflecting the expected strong bidirectional CI when Ja males were released at a high relative frequency into an Ro population.
Together, these results suggest that Wolbachia strains with perfect vertical transmission may induce strong population-level bidirectional CI with potential use for suppression of ACP populations. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.
沃尔巴克氏体是无脊椎动物中最常见的细胞内共生菌，主要存在于宿主的生殖组织中，可诱导多种宿主表型，如细胞质不亲和性（CI），这可能会影响其在宿主种群中的存续和传播。本研究探讨了亚洲柑橘木虱（ACP，学名：Diaphorina citri）中沃尔巴克氏体细菌的存在情况及其可能产生的影响。
我们在从伊朗鲁丹（Ro）和贾赫罗姆（Ja）采集的亚洲柑橘木虱种群中检测到了沃尔巴克氏体，并对其在不同发育阶段和组织中的滴度进行了定量。在各个发育阶段和组织中，贾赫罗姆种群中的沃尔巴克氏体滴度均高于鲁丹种群。在这两个种群中，沃尔巴克氏体均表现出完美的垂直传播。基于ftsZ基因，亚洲柑橘木虱的沃尔巴克氏体属于B超群。通过四环素处理，我们从亚洲柑橘木虱成虫中消除了沃尔巴克氏体。然而，被治愈的昆虫无法繁殖，因此未能建立无沃尔巴克氏体品系。我们还对贾赫罗姆种群和鲁丹种群进行了正反交，令人惊讶的是，尽管种群内的雌雄交配显示正常孵化，但杂交产生的卵却无法孵化。这表明存在双向细胞质不亲和表型，可能是由于两个种群中沃尔巴克氏体感染情况不同所致。为了进一步测试沃尔巴克氏体的差异，我们使用针对ftsZ基因的定量聚合酶链反应高分辨率熔解分析，随后进行ftsZ序列分析，结果揭示了两个亚洲柑橘木虱种群中沃尔巴克氏体菌株的差异。为了进一步表征生殖表型并考虑其在抑制亚洲柑橘木虱种群方面的潜在用途，我们改变了不同种群中雌雄的比例，并将它们释放到柠檬幼苗上，记录孵化率。孵化率从鲁丹种群中♀♂数量相等时的84.85±1.8%到♀鲁丹:♂鲁丹:♂贾赫罗姆比例为1:1:10时的低至2.02±1.7%不等，这反映出当贾赫罗姆雄虫以较高相对频率释放到鲁丹种群中时，预期会出现强烈的双向细胞质不亲和现象。
总之，这些结果表明，具有完美垂直传播的沃尔巴克氏体菌株可能会诱导强烈的种群水平双向细胞质不亲和，具有抑制亚洲柑橘木虱种群的潜在用途。© 2025化学工业协会。
