The use of Wolbachia as a tool to control insect vectors has recently been suggested. In this context, studies on the prevalence and diversity of this bacterium in wild populations are relevant. Here, we evaluated the diversity of two Wolbachiagenes (ftsZ and wsp) and the prevalence of this endosymbiont in wild Aedes albopictus. Using semi-nested polymerase chain reaction, our results showed th...

This survey of Wolbachia infections in populations of the planthoppers Perkinsiella saccharicida and Perkinsiella vitiensis revealed variable frequencies, low-titer infections, and high phylogenetic diversities of strains. These observations add to the growing realization that Wolbachia infections may be extremely common within invertebrates and yet occur infrequently within populations and at ...

Wolbachia are ubiquitous inherited endosymbionts of invertebrates that invade host populations by modifying host reproductive systems. However, some strains lack the ability to impose reproductive modification and yet are still capable of successfully invading host populations. To explain this paradox, theory predicts that such strains should provide a fitness benefit, but to date none has been...

Motivation Population genomic analyses are often hindered by difficulties in obtaining sufficient numbers of genomes for analysis by DNA sequencing. Selective whole-genome amplification (SWGA) provides an efficient approach to amplify microbial genomes from complex backgrounds for sequence acquisition. However, the process of designing sets of primers for this method has many degrees of freedom...

Laboratory experiments as well some field essays have revealed that the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia, deliberately introduced in Aedes spp female mosquitoes, drastically reduces their vector competence for dengue virus and, also, other mosquito-borne viral diseases. However, mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia still need to ingest human blood while male either wild or Wolbachia-carrying, do...

Escherichia coli RNase E (Eco-RNase E), encoded by rne (Eco-rne), is considered the global RNA decay initiator. Although Eco-RNase E is an essential gene product in E. coli, some bacterial species, such as Bacillus subtilis, do not possess Eco-RNase E sequence homologues. B. subtilis instead possesses RNase J1/J2 (Bsu-RNase J1/J2) and RNase Y (Bsu-RNase Y) to execute RNA decay. Here we found th...

Grape yellows caused by phytoplasmas afflict several important wine-producing areas of Europe. A grape yellows with increasing incidence in European vineyards is “bois noir” (BN), caused by ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’. Its vector is the planthopper Hyalesthes obsoletus Signoret (Hemiptera Cixiidae), occasionally feeding on grapevine. An innovative strategy for reducing the diffusion of the ...