title: Species in Wolbachia? Proposal for the designation of 'Candidatus Wolbachia bourtzisii', 'Candidatus Wolbachia onchocercicola', 'Candidatus Wolbachia blaxteri', 'Candidatus Wolbachia brugii', 'Candidatus Wolbachia taylori', 'Candidatus Wolbachia collembolicola' and 'Candidatus Wolbachia multihospitum' for the different species within Wolbachia supergroups.
abstract: Wolbachia are highly extended bacterial endosymbionts that infect arthropods and filarial nematodes and produce contrasting phenotypes on their hosts. Wolbachia taxonomy has been understudied. Currently, Wolbachia strains are classified into phylogenetic supergroups. Here we applied phylogenomic analyses to study Wolbachia evolutionary relationships and examined metrics derived from their genome sequences such as average nucleotide identity (ANI), in silico DNA-DNA hybridization (DDH), G+C content, and synteny to shed light on the taxonomy of these bacteria. Draft genome sequences of strains wDacA and wDacB obtained from the carmine cochineal insect Dactylopius coccus were included. Although all analyses indicated that each Wolbachia supergroup represents a distinct evolutionary lineage, we found that some of the analyzed supergroups showed enough internal heterogeneity to be considered as assemblages of more than one species. Thus, supergroups would represent supraspecific groupings. Consequently, Wolbachia pipientis nomen species would apply only to strains of supergroup B and we propose the designation of 'Candidatus Wolbachia bourtzisii', 'Candidatus Wolbachia onchocercicola', 'Candidatus Wolbachia blaxterii', 'Candidatus Wolbachia brugii', 'Candidatus Wolbachia taylorii', 'Candidatus Wolbachia collembolicola' and 'Candidatus Wolbachia multihospitis' for other supergroups.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ciencias Genómicas, UNAM, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
authors.forename: Shamayim T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Ramírez-Puebla
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ciencias Genómicas, UNAM, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
authors.forename: Luis E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Servín-Garcidueñas
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ciencias Genómicas, UNAM, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
authors.forename: Ernesto
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ormeño-Orrillo
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ciencias Genómicas, UNAM, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vera-Ponce de León
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ciencias Genómicas, UNAM, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
authors.forename: Mónica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rosenblueth
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, CINVESTAV-Irapuato, Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico.
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Delaye
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ciencias Genómicas, UNAM, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ciencias Genómicas, UNAM, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. Electronic address: emartine@ccg.unam.mx.
authors.forename: Esperanza
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Martínez-Romero
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001181:Arthropods / Q000382:microbiology; D001482:Base Composition; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009348:Nematoda / Q000382:microbiology; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D020577:Wolbachia / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial
keywords: ANI; DDH; Wolbachia Candidatus; Wolbachia supergroups; Wolbachia taxonomy