Holden P R, Jones P, Brookfield J F
Department of Biochemistry, University of Nottingham, Queens Medical Centre, England.
Genet Res. 1993 Aug;62(1):23-9. doi: 10.1017/s0016672300031529.
The bacterial cell division gene, ftsZ, was used as a specific probe to show the presence of a symbiotic bacterium in two wild type strains of Drosophila melanogaster. Under stringent hybridization conditions we have shown that the bacterium is transferred to the progeny of these strains from infected mothers and can be eradicated by treatment with the antibiotic tetracycline. We have characterized this bacterium, by amplifying and sequencing its 16S rRNA gene, as being a member of the genus Wolbachia, an organism that is known to parasitize a range of insects including Drosophila simulans. In a series of reciprocal crosses no evidence was found that the symbiont causes cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) which is known to occur in infected strains of D. simulans. The implications of these findings are discussed.
细菌细胞分裂基因ftsZ被用作特异性探针，以显示在两种野生型黑腹果蝇菌株中存在一种共生细菌。在严格的杂交条件下，我们已表明该细菌可从受感染的母体传递至这些菌株的后代，并且可用抗生素四环素处理将其根除。我们通过扩增并测序其16S rRNA基因，将这种细菌鉴定为沃尔巴克氏体属的成员，已知该生物体可寄生于包括拟暗果蝇在内的一系列昆虫。在一系列正反交实验中，未发现该共生体导致细胞质不亲和（CI）的证据，而细胞质不亲和已知会在拟暗果蝇的受感染菌株中出现。本文讨论了这些发现的意义。
