title: Longicorn beetle that vectors pinewood nematode carries many Wolbachia genes on an autosome.
abstract: Monochamus alternatus is the longicorn beetle notorious as a vector of the pinewood nematode that causes the pine wilt disease. When two populations of M. alternatus were subjected to diagnostic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection of four Wolbachia genes, only the ftsZ gene was detected from one of the populations. The Wolbachia ftsZ gene persisted even after larvae were fed with a tetracycline-containing diet for six weeks. The inheritance of the ftsZ gene was not maternal but biparental, exhibiting a typical Mendelian pattern. The ftsZ gene titres in homozygotic ftsZ(+) insects were nearly twice as high as those in heterozygotic ftsZ(+) insects. Exhaustive PCR surveys revealed that 31 and 30 of 214 Wolbachia genes examined were detected from the two insect populations, respectively. Many of these Wolbachia genes contained stop codon(s) and/or frame shift(s). Fluorescent in situ hybridization confirmed the location of the Wolbachia genes on an autosome. On the basis of these results, we conclude that a large Wolbachia genomic region has been transferred to and located on an autosome of M. alternatus. The discovery of massive gene transfer from Wolbachia to M. alternatus would provide further insights into the evolution and fate of laterally transferred endosymbiont genes in multicellular host organisms.
authors.affiliation: Tohoku Research Center, Forestry and Forest Product Research Institute, Morioka, Japan. taikawa@ffpri.affrc.go.jp
authors.forename: Takuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aikawa
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Anbutsu
authors.forename: Naruo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nikoh
authors.forename: Taisei
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: Fukashi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.forename: Takema
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fukatsu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000469:parasitology*; D005260:Female; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D049750:Genome, Insect; D008297:Male; D009348:Nematoda / Q000502:physiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D020577:Wolbachia / Q000235:genetics*
references.citation: Annu Rev Microbiol. 2001;55:709-42
references.pmid: 11544372
references.citation: PLoS Biol. 2004 Mar;2(3):E69
references.pmid: 15024419
references.citation: FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2008 Apr;281(2):215-20
references.pmid: 18312577
references.citation: Science. 2007 Sep 21;317(5845):1753-6
references.pmid: 17761848
references.citation: Nat Rev Genet. 2006 Jun;7(6):427-35
references.pmid: 16682981
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Apr 1;89(7):2699-702
references.pmid: 1557375
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Oct 29;99(22):14280-5
references.pmid: 12386340
references.citation: Proc Biol Sci. 2006 Jun 7;273(1592):1317-22
references.pmid: 16777718
references.citation: Nucleic Acids Res. 1994 Nov 11;22(22):4673-80
references.pmid: 7984417
references.citation: Nature. 2000 May 18;405(6784):299-304
references.pmid: 10830951
references.citation: BMC Biol. 2009 Mar 10;7:12
references.pmid: 19284544
references.citation: Genome Res. 2008 Feb;18(2):272-80
references.pmid: 18073380
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Oct 19;101(42):15042-5
references.pmid: 15469918
references.citation: Science. 2007 Dec 21;318(5858):1913-6
references.pmid: 18096805
references.citation: PLoS Pathog. 2006 Oct;2(10):e94
references.pmid: 17040125
references.citation: BMC Genomics. 2009 Jan 20;10:33
references.pmid: 19154594
references.citation: Cell Mol Life Sci. 2005 Jun;62(11):1182-97
references.pmid: 15761667
references.citation: Zoolog Sci. 1997 Aug;14(4):701-6
references.pmid: 9401467
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1997 Apr 1;94(7):3274-8
references.pmid: 9096383
references.citation: Mol Ecol. 2002 Feb;11(2):167-80
references.pmid: 11856419
references.citation: Bioinformatics. 2005 May 1;21(9):2104-5
references.pmid: 15647292
references.citation: Trends Parasitol. 2003 Mar;19(3):128-33
references.pmid: 12643996
references.citation: Science. 2009 Jan 2;323(5910):141-4
references.pmid: 19119237
references.citation: Bioinformatics. 1998;14(9):817-8
references.pmid: 9918953
references.citation: Proc Biol Sci. 1998 Mar 22;265(1395):509-15
references.pmid: 9569669
references.citation: Mol Biol Evol. 2009 Feb;26(2):367-74
references.pmid: 18988686
references.citation: Parasitol Today. 1993 May;9(5):179-83
references.pmid: 15463748
references.citation: Nat Rev Genet. 2008 Aug;9(8):605-18
references.pmid: 18591983