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High incidences and similar patterns of Wolbachia infection in fig wasp communities from three different continents |
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| Authors: | Lin-Lin Chen James M Cook Hui Xiao Hao-Yuan Hu Li-Ming Niu Da-Wei Huang |
| Institution: | 1. Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;2. School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK;3. Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;4. Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China College of Plant Protection, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, Shandong Province, China |
| Abstract: | Abstract Wolbachia are endosymbiotic bacteria that infect numerous arthropod species. Previous studies in Panama and Australia revealed that the majority of fig wasp species harbor Wolbachia infections, but that similar patterns of incidence have evolved independently with different wasp species and Wolbachia strains on the two continents. We found Wolbachia infections in 25/47 species (53%) of fig wasp associated with 25 species of Chinese figs. Phylogenetic analyses of Wolbachia wsp sequences indicated that very similar strains are not obviously found in either closely related or ecologically linked fig wasps species. The extremely high prevalence of Wolbachia in fig wasps (over 50% of species infected) is not constrained by geographical origin and is a recurrent theme of fig wasp/Wolbachia interactions. |
| Keywords: | fig wasps horizontal transmission Wolbachia wsp |