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Evidence for a Wolbachia symbiont in Drosophila melanogaster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

Peter R. Holden ,
Peter Jones  and
John F. Y. Brookfield
Peter Jones
Affiliation:
Departments of Biochemistry, University of Nottingham, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH England
John F. Y. Brookfield
Affiliation:
Genetics, University of Nottingham, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH England
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The bacterial cell division gene, ftsZ, was used as a specific probe to show the presence of a symbiotic bacterium in two wild type strains of Drosophila melanogaster. Under stringent hybridization conditions we have shown that the bacterium is transferred to the progeny of these strains from infected mothers and can be eradicated by treatment with the antibiotic tetracycline. We have characterized this bacterium, by amplifying and sequencing its 16S rRNA gene, as being a member of the genus Wolbachia, an organism that is known to parasitize a range of insects including Drosophila simulans. In a series of reciprocal crosses no evidence was found that the symbiont causes cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) which is known to occur in infected strains of D. simulans. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Genetics Research , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , August 1993 , pp. 23 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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