Bacteriophage WO in Wolbachia infecting terrestrial isopods.
Wolbachia are maternally inherited intracellular alpha-proteobacteria that infect a wide range of arthropods. They are associated with a number of different reproductive phenotypes in arthropods and nematodes. In isopod crustacean, Wolbachia are responsible for feminization of genetic males in many species, and for cytoplasmic incompatibility in two species. In this paper, we report the first detection of phage WO from Wolbachia infecting terrestrial isopods. All Wolbachia strains tested in this study were infected with phage WO. Based on the orf7 phage sequence, we identified three different phage sequences in four Wolbachia strains. The phage of Wolbachia infecting Armadillidium vulgare seems to be not active, unlike other phages WO previously described in arthropods.
Braquart-Varnier
Christine
C
Laboratoire de Génétique et Biologie des Populations de Crustacés, Unité mixte de Recherche 6556, CNRS, Université de Poitiers, France. christine.braquart@univ-poitiers.fr
Grève
Pierre
P
Félix
Christine
C
Martin
Gilbert
G
D000818:Animals; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D001483:Base Sequence; D005262:Feminization; D033321:Isopoda / Q000502:physiology / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010641:Phenotype; D020577:Wolbachia / Q000821:virology*