title: Detection and characterization of Wolbachia infection in silkworm.
abstract: Wolbachia naturally infects a wide variety of arthropods, where it plays important roles in host reproduction. It was previously reported that Wolbachia did not infect silkworm. By means of PCR and sequencing we found in this study that Wolbachia is indeed present in silkworm. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that Wolbachia infection in silkworm may have occurred via transfer from parasitic wasps. Furthermore, Southern blotting results suggest a lateral transfer of the wsp gene into the genomes of some wild silkworms. By antibiotic treatments, we found that tetracycline and ciprofloxacin can eliminate Wolbachia in the silkworm and Wolbachia is important to ovary development of silkworm. These results provide clues towards a more comprehensive understanding of the interaction between Wolbachia and silkworm and possibly other lepidopteran insects.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology , College of Biotechnology , Southwest University, Chongqing , P.R. China .
authors.forename: Xingfu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zha
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology , College of Biotechnology , Southwest University, Chongqing , P.R. China .
authors.forename: Wenji
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology , College of Biotechnology , Southwest University, Chongqing , P.R. China .
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology , College of Biotechnology , Southwest University, Chongqing , P.R. China .
authors.forename: Liying
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology , College of Biotechnology , Southwest University, Chongqing , P.R. China .
authors.forename: Zhonghuai
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology , College of Biotechnology , Southwest University, Chongqing , P.R. China .
authors.forename: Qingyou
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xia
keywords: Wolbachia; antibiotics; silkworm; wsp