Wolbachia endosymbiotic bacteria are widespread in filarial nematodes and are directly involved in the immune response of the host. In addition, antibiotics which disrupt Wolbachia interfere with filarial nematode development thus, Wolbachia provide an excellent target for control of filariasis. A 63.1 kb bacterial artificial chromosome insert, from the Wolbachia endosymbiont of the human filar...

Wolbachia is a widespread, intracellular symbiont of arthropods, able to induce reproductive distortions and antiviral protection in insects. Wolbachia can also be pathogenic, as is the case with wMelPop, a virulent variant of the endosymbiont of Drosophila melanogaster. An extensive genomic amplification of the 20kb region encompassing eight Wolbachia genes, called Octomom, is responsible for ...

BACKGROUND Wolbachia are common intracellular bacteria that infect different groups of arthropods including mosquitoes. These bacteria modify host biology and may induce feminization, parthenogenesis, male killing and cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). Recently Wolbachia is being nominated as a bio-agent and paratransgenic candidate to control mosquito borne diseases. METHODS Here we report th...

Wolbachia infections are a model for understanding intracellular, bacterial symbioses. While the symbiosis is often studied from a binary perspective of host and bacteria, it is increasingly apparent that additional trophic levels can influence the symbiosis. For example, Wolbachia in arthropods harbor a widespread temperate bacteriophage, termed WO, that forms virions and rampantly transfers b...

Individual traits vary among and within populations, and the co-occurrence of different endosymbiont species within a host may take place under varying endosymbiont loads in each individual host. This makes the recognition of the potential impact of such endosymbiont associations in insect species difficult, particularly in insect pest species. The maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais Motsch. (Cole...

Bacterial mutualists can modulate the biochemical capacity of animals. Highly coevolved nutritional mutualists do this by synthesizing nutrients missing from the host's diet. Genomics tools have advanced the study of these partnerships. Here we examined the endosymbiont Xiphinematobacter (phylum Verrucomicrobia) from the dagger nematode Xiphinema americanum, a migratory ectoparasite of numerous...

Wolbachia endobacteria are obligate intracellular bacteria with a highly reduced genome infecting many arthropod and filarial species, in which they manipulate arthropod reproduction to increase their transmission and are essential for nematode development and survival. The Wolbachia genome encodes all enzymes required for the synthesis of the cell wall building block lipid II, although a pepti...

Host-microbe symbioses involving bacterial endosymbionts comprise some of the most intimate and long-lasting interactions on the planet. While restricted gene flow might be expected due to their intracellular lifestyle, many endosymbionts, especially those that switch hosts, are rampant with mobile DNA and bacteriophages. One endosymbiont, Wolbachia pipientis, infects a vast number of arthropod...

The alpha-proteobacterium Wolbachia pipientis is a highly successful intracellular endosymbiont of invertebrates that manipulates its host's reproductive biology to facilitate its own maternal transmission. The fastidious nature of Wolbachia and the lack of genetic transformation have hampered analysis of the molecular basis of these manipulations. Structure determination of key Wolbachia prote...

The importance of host-specialization to speciation processes in obligate host-associated bacteria is well known, as is also the ability of recombination to generate cohesion in bacterial populations. However, whether divergent strains of highly recombining intracellular bacteria, such as Wolbachia, can maintain their genetic distinctness when infecting the same host is not known. We first deve...