Distribution and Evolutionary Impact of Wolbachia on Butterfly Hosts

Abstract

Wolbachia are maternally inherited endosymbiotic alpha-proteobacteria found in terrestrial arthropods and filarial nematodes. They are transmitted vertically through host cytoplasm and alter host biology by inducing various reproductive alterations, like feminization, parthenogenesis, male killing (MK) and cytoplasmic incompatibility. In butterflies, some effects especially MK and sperm-egg incompatibility are well established. All these effects skew the sex ratio towards female and subsequently favor the vertical transmission of Wolbachia. Some of the insects are also infected with multiple Wolbachia strains which may results in some complex phenomenon. In the present review the potential of Wolbachia for promoting evolutionary changes in its hosts with emphasis on recent advances in interactions of butterfly-Wolbachia is discussed. In addition to this, strain diversity of Wolbachia and its effects on various butterfly hosts are also highlighted.

Bacterial communities within Phengaris (Maculinea) alcon caterpillars are shifted following transition from solitary living to social parasitism of Myrmica ant colonies

“…Pathogenic strains of both Spiroplasma and Wolbachia are known to cause cytoplasmic incompatibility, feminization, and male killing. Wolbachia are very common parasites of lepidopterans (Salunkhe, Narkhede, & Shouche, ), and some Spiroplasma may play similar parasitic roles in lepidopterans (Jiggins, Hurst, Jiggins, v. d. Schulenburg, & Majerus, ). However, potentially mutualistic symbiotic effects have also been uncovered for both Spiroplasma (Jaenike, Unckless, Cockburn, Boelio, & Perlman, ; Xie, Vilchez, & Mateos, ) and Wolbachia (Bian, Xu, Lu, Xie, & Xi, ; Hedges, Brownlie, Oneill, & Johnson, ; Hosokawa, Koga, Kikuchi, Meng, & Fukatsu, ) in other insect groups.…”

“…Wolbachia are known to cause cytoplasmic incompatibility, feminization, and male killing. Wolbachia are very common parasites of lepidopterans (Salunkhe, Narkhede, & Shouche, 2014), and some…”

Wolbachia infection in populations of the coniferous forest pest Dendrolimus superans sibiricus Tschetverikov, 1908 (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae)

“…Репродуктивные манипуляции выражаются в форме таких феноменов, как цитоплазматическая несовмести-мость, андроцид, феминизация или телитокный парте-ногенез, и все указанные явления известны для чешуе-крылых насекомых (Salunkhe et al, 2014). Последние три феномена характеризуются сдвигом соотношения полов в сторону преобладания самок.…”

Molecular detection and screening of Wolbachia infections in tropical bed bugs Cimex hemipterus (Hemiptera: Cimcidae) from Peninsular Malaysia Populations

“…In animal-microbial interactions, bed bugs are frequently associated with Wolbachia, a cytoplasmic intracellular symbiotic and maternally-inherited rickettsialike bacterium that is widely known to infect tremendous species of arthropods and nematodes (Jeyaprakash and Hoy, 2000;Werren and Windsor, 2000;Hilgenboeker et al, 2008;Choi et al, 2015;Akhoundi et al, 2016). The parasitic Wolbachia selfishly initiates adverse effects to its hosts by influencing the reproductive alternation through cytoplasmic incompatibility, male killing, parthenogenesis, ISSN (print): 1823-8262, ISSN (online): 2231-7538 speciation and feminization (O'Neil et al, 1992;1997;Weeks and Breeuwer, 2001;Hilgenboeker et al, 2008;Werren et al, 2008;Salunkhe et al, 2014). Owing to these abilities, Wolbachia has been promoted as a promising candidate to control and end the spread of viral and parasitic pathogens of various mosquito-transmitted illnesses such as dengue fever and malaria (Shaw et al, 2016).…”