The First Detection of the Insertion Sequence ISW1 in the Intracellular Reproductive Parasite Wolbachia

Bacteriophage WO and Virus-like Particles in Wolbachia, an Endosymbiont of Arthropods

“…Molecular biological studies of Wolbachia have delayed significantly, and one of the reasons is the lack of the vector to transform these bacteria, whereas a transposon-like element has been reported (25). It may be possible to transform Wolbachia by micro-injecting the purified phage WO particles to Wolbachia-infected cell lines (26) or insects.…”

New criteria for selecting the origin of DNA replication in Wolbachia and closely related bacteria

“…However, significant progress has been made toward the development of a robust genetic transformation for A. phagocytophilum and R. prowazekii using homologous recombination-based and transposon-based approaches [68-70]. The fact that these bacteria (both Wolbachia and relatives) can be maintained in different cell lines [3,71,72], the availability of complete genomic information [14,15,34-36,73-76] and, the presence in some of them, such as Wolbachia , of endogenous phages and insertion sequences [77,78] will certainly facilitate current efforts for the genetic transformation of these intracellular bacteria.…”

The evolutionary life history of P transposons: from horizontal invaders to domesticated neogenes

“…While cytoplasmically inherited within a host species, there is also evidence for frequent horizontal transmission of Wolbachia among different species via parasitoid wasps (Vavre et al 1999). The presence of a mobile insertion sequence in the genome of a Wolbachia strain has been detected by Masui et al (1999), suggesting that this bacterium could serve as a shuttle for transposable elements. This hypothesis is currently being investigated in our laboratory (Miller, unpublished results).…”