“Background Wolbachia and Cardinium are intracellular bact


“Background Wolbachia and Cardinium are intracellular bacteria infecting a wide range of arthropod species. They have been classified as reproductive parasites, being able to manipulate their host’s reproductive system in order to promote their own transmission [1–3]. Recently, beneficial effects selleckchem of Wolbachia have been identified as well, as Wolbachia can protect hosts against virus infection [4, 5]. Cardinium may also exert beneficial effects [6] and in many other cases the effect of Wolbachia or Cardinium is unknown. Wolbachia is well

studied and is widespread among arthropods and nematodes. It is estimated that around 66% of all insects are infected with Wolbachia Ruxolitinib [7]. This diverse genus has been subdivided into 11 “supergroups” (A-K)

on the basis of molecular phylogenetic analysis [8–13]. Cardinium was more recently discovered and has so far been found in 6-7% of all arthropods, though seems to be more common in Chelicerates than in insects [2, 14–18]. Wolbachia and Cardinium have been found co-infecting the same host species [2, 15, 17–21]. Although Wolbachia and Cardinium are generally considered to be clonally inherited via vertical transmission, there

is now a large body of molecular evidence for discordant learn more phylogenies of host and endosymbiont [22–29]. Distantly related Wolbachia or Cardinium these strains can infect closely related host species, and closely related strains may infect distantly related host species. Such patterns suggest horizontal transmission of bacteria (or at least of some bacterial genes) between hosts, although direct evidence for horizontal transmission is rare [30–32]. Horizontal transfer has been further supported by evidence for recombination [33]. For Wolbachia, recombination has been found between genes (intergenic) as well as within genes (intragenic). Intergenic recombination is evident from inconsistencies between gene trees [34–36]. Intragenic recombination has been observed within the genes wsp, ftsZ, and gltA and within and between supergroups A and B [34, 37–41]. Recently, a genomic comparison of A-group Wolbachia strains by Klasson et al. [42] showed highly recombining genomes, implying frequent horizontal gene transfer.

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