| Detection of prophage WO in the Wolbachia- infected Habrobracon hebetor and its effect on the induction of cytoplasmic incompatibility |
| Paper ID : 1243-3IICE (R1) |
| Authors: |
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seyyedeh fatemeh Nasehi1, Mohammad Mehrabadi *2, Yaghoub Fathipour3 1entomology ,Agriculture, Tarbiat modares University,Tehran,Iran 2Dept of Entomology, TMU 3Tarbiat Modares University |
| Abstract: |
| Wolbachia bacteria are endosymbitic alphaproteobacteria in many species of arthropods including more than 65% of insect species. To increase its transmission to the next generation, Wolbachia manipulate its host reproduction and induce various phenotypes. Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) is one of the most important and commonly manipulation that is induced when an uninfected female mates with a Wolbachia-infected male. Recent studies have identified the cytoplasmic incompatibility factors (cifA and cifB) genes involved in cytoplasmic incompatibility which are encoded by prophage WO phage that naturally infect Wolbachia. In this study, the prophage WO in three populations of Wolbachia- infected parasitoid wasp, Habrobracon hebetorwas detected using orf7 primers. Also the expression levels of cifA and cifB genes that are involved in cytoplasmic incompatibility were investigated. Our qPCR results showed that Prophage WO is present in both males and females from different populations of the wasp. Neither WO nor cif genes were detected in the tetracycline-treated wasps. Gene expression analysis using RT-qPCR also showed that cif genes were expressed in the infected wasps, however, the level of cifA expression was higher than cifB in both sexes. Moreover, the infected male wasps showed higher level of cifA and cifB expressions compared with those in females. We also found that the expression level of these genes were declined during male aging (i.e. 1, 5 and 10 days old) suggested decreasing in CI level following male aging. Together, our results suggest that prophage WO is present in the Wolbachia-infected wasps and expression of cif genes contribute in induction of CI in this insect. |
| Keywords: |
| Prophage WO, cifa, cifb, Cytoplasmic incompatibility, Wolbachia. |
| Status : Paper Accepted (Oral Presentation) |
