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Two New Strains of Wolbachia Affecting Natural Avocado Thrips

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Abstract

Wolbachia is an obligate intracellular bacterium with a high frequency of infection and a continental distribution in arthropods and nematodes. This endosymbiont can induce various reproductive phenotypes in their hosts and has been previously found naturally in several pests including thrips (Thripidae). These insects cause physical fruit damage and economic losses in avocado. The presence of Wolbachia was evaluated for the first time in avocado thrips populations of Frankliniella sp. and Scirtothrips hansoni sp.n. from eastern Antioquia. DNA from adult thrips individuals was used to assess the detection of Wolbachia by amplifying a fragment (600 bp) of the Wolbachia major surface protein (wsp) gene. Results confirmed the presence of two new Wolbachia strains in these two thrips species, with a higher percentage of natural infection in S. hansoni sp.n. The first Wolbachia species was found in Frankliniella sp. and belongs to supergroup A and the second was detected in S. hansoni sp.n. and is part of supergroup B. Wolbachia was more frequently found in females (32.73%), and only found in one male. Analysis of phylogenetic relationships, suggests that the two new Wolbachia sequences (wFran: Frankliniella and wShan: Scirtothrips hansoni) detected here represent two new groups for this endosymbiont. The haplotype network shows the presence of two possible haplotypes for each strain. Future studies to evaluate the possible use of Wolbachia as a control agent in avocado thrips are necessary.

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Data Availability

The datasets supporting the conclusions of this article are included within the article and its additional file. The newly-generated sequences are submitted to the GenBank database under accession numbers MT649512-MT649530 for 16S rRNA sequence and MT647247-MT647265 for wsp sequence.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Mr. Roberto Aguilar and the laboratorio de Biología Celular y Molecular of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, sede Medellín. We thank the owners of the farms who permitted the collection of biological material.

Funding

The research reported in this publication was supported by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia under Project Code 202010013471, contract number FP44842-132-2017. This material is based on work supported by the Ministry of science, technology, and innovation (Minciencias) of Colombia Graduate Research Fellowship Program for Daniela Cano-Calle No.727 in 2015 under Grant No. 201010020475. Foundation for the Promotion of Research and Technology, Bank of the Republic of Colombia Project No 201423.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Ciencias, Grupo Biotecnología Vegetal UNALMED-CIB, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede-Medellín, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia

    Daniela Cano-Calle, Clara I. Saldamando-Benjumea & Rafael E. Arango-Isaza

  2. Facultad de Ciencias, Grupo Microbiodiversidad y Bioprospección (MICROBIOP), Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede-Medellín, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia

    Daniela Cano-Calle, Rafael J. Vivero-Gómez & Claudia X. Moreno-Herrera

  3. Corporación Para Investigaciones Biológicas (CIB), Cra. 65 #59a-110, 050034, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia

    Daniela Cano-Calle, Clara I. Saldamando-Benjumea & Rafael E. Arango-Isaza

Authors
  1. Daniela Cano-Calle
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  2. Clara I. Saldamando-Benjumea
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  3. Rafael J. Vivero-Gómez
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  5. Rafael E. Arango-Isaza
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the writing and revision of the manuscript. Cano-Calle D. contributed to the development of experiments in the laboratory and field trips. Vivero-Gomez R., Moreno-Herrera C., Saldamando-Benjumea C., and Arango-Isaza R., Designed the study, analyzed the data, and contributed to writing the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniela Cano-Calle.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that no conflict of interest exists in the study.

Ethics Statement

The insect collections were made between April and August 2017 through the certificate issued by Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellín with the permission to collect specimens of wild species of biological diversity with scientific research purposes produced by the National Authority for Environmental Licenses (ANLA) to Universidad Nacional de Colombia through resolution No. 0255 of March 14, 2014 (article 3). Thrips were collected on private property and permission was received from the landowners prior to sampling procedures.

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Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material. Fig. 1 Map of the localities studied in Colombia. Fig. 2 PCR amplification from Wolbachia of the16S rRNA and wsp genes from wild thrips. a) amplification of 16S rRNA gene and b) amplification of wsp gene. Lines 1-15 correspond to Scirtothrips hansoni sp.n.. C-: negative control (mix PCR plus sterile water free DNAse and RNAse); C +: positive control; M: 100 bp molecular marker. Fig. 3 Wolbachia phylogeny found in populations of natural thrips. a) Maximum likelihood Tree using partial sequences of 16S rRNA gene from Wolbachia and Kimura 2 parameter with 1000 replicates. The numbers in nodes correspond to the bootstrap support inferred by analysis. Blue boxes correspond to the Wolbachia wShan strain found in Scirtothrips hansoni sp.n.and red boxes correspond to Wolbachia wFran strain from Frankliniella. Outgroups: Anaplasma marginale and Ehrlichia ruminantium. Fig. 4 Bayesian probability inference tree based on partial sequences of wsp gene obtained from GenBank and Wolbachia sequences amplified from avocado thrips. The posterior probability values are indicated by numbers on nodes. In blue are Wolbachia found in Scirtothrips hansoni and in red are those found in Frankliniella. Outgroup: Bemicia tabaci wBtab. Fig. 5 Wolbachia strain haplotype network. wShan and wFran strains correspond to Wolbachia strains found in this work in Scirtothrips hansoni sp. n. and Frankliniella, respectively. Blue and red boxes enclose two supergroups A and B with their haplotypes

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12088_2021_951_MOESM6_ESM.docx

Table 1 Information on samples used for the study. * Possibly corresponds to F. gardeniae or F. gossypiana. Supplementary file6 (DOCX 14 kb)

12088_2021_951_MOESM7_ESM.docx

Table 2 Frequency of natural infection by Wolbachia in thrips obtained from farms in eastern Antioquia, Colombia. Supplementary file7 (DOCX 12 kb)

Table 3. Kimura 2-parameters distances for Wolbachia haplotypes of thrips. Supplementary file8 (DOCX 13 kb)

Table 4. Wolbachia haplotype allocation list with wsp gene. Supplementary file9 (DOCX 15 kb)

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Cano-Calle, D., Saldamando-Benjumea, C.I., Vivero-Gómez, R.J. et al. Two New Strains of Wolbachia Affecting Natural Avocado Thrips. Indian J Microbiol 61, 348–354 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12088-021-00951-5

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