title: Wolbachia in Neotropical terrestrial isopods.
abstract: Despite Wolbachia being widespread among terrestrial isopods, studies on this symbiotic relationship are still incipient in the Neotropical region. The aims of the present study were to investigate the presence and prevalence of Wolbachia in natural populations of terrestrial isopod species in South America, and to analyze the diversity and phylogenetic relationships of Wolbachia strains. A total of 1172 individuals representing 11 families and 35 species were analyzed. We observed distinct evolutionary scenarios according to the geographical origins of the species: strains harbored by most of the introduced species belong to the Oniclade in supergroup B and are identical to those found in their original ecozone (i.e. Palearctic). On the other hand, the strains found in native Neotropical terrestrial isopods showed low prevalence, high diversity and none of them belonged to the Oniclade, although most belonged to supergroup B. The dynamics of infection in Neotropical species seems to be the result of several events of loss and acquisition of the bacteria, which refutes the hypothesis of an ancestral acquisition of Wolbachia in Oniscidea. The presence of strains from supergroups A and F was also detected for the first time in terrestrial isopods, revealing a Wolbachia diversity previously unknown for this group of host.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, CEP 91501-970 Porto Alegre, Brazil bia.lais@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Bianca L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Zimmermann
authors.affiliation: CNRS UMR 7267, Laboratoire Ecologie et Biologie des Interactions, Université de Poitiers, 5 rue Albert Turpin, Batiment B8-B35, TSA 51106, F-86073 Poitiers, France.
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bouchon
authors.affiliation: Centro Universitário La Salle, Avenida Victor Barreto, 2288, CEP 92010-000, Canoas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Maurício P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Almerão
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, CEP 91501-970 Porto Alegre, Brazil.
authors.forename: Paula B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Araujo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D001483:Base Sequence; D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics; D005843:Geography; D033321:Isopoda / Q000382:microbiology*; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013020:South America; D013559:Symbiosis; D020577:Wolbachia / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial
keywords: COI; Oniscidea; horizontal transmission; multilocus sequence typing; symbiosis