Evidence of new strains of Wolbachia symbiont colonising semiaquatic bugs (Hemiptera: Gerroidea) in mangrove environment of the Lesser Antilles

PLoS One. 2022 Aug 30;17(8):e0273668. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273668. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Wolbachia Hertig, 1936 is an intracellular bacterial symbiont colonizing many arthropods. Of the studies done on the bacteria present in the superfamily Gerroidea Leach, 1815, no report of Wolbachia infection had yet been made. Thus, we checked the presence of Wolbachia in six Gerroidea species which colonize tropical aquatic environments by PCR using wsp primer set before sequencing and phylogenetic analyses. Insects were collected in the marine fringe of mangroves, in river estuaries, in swampy mangroves, and in ponds from Guadeloupe islands (Caribbean). Two new strains of Wolbachia were detected in these Gerroidea. They were named wLfran and wRmang. The wsp sequences suggest that the strains belong to the already described E supergroup or similar. wLfran is present in Limnogonus franciscanus Stål, 1859 and Rheumatobates trinitatis (China, 1943) while wRmang appears to be present exclusively in R. mangrovensis (China, 1943). Three other species were analysed, but did not appear to be infected: Brachymetra albinerva (Amyot & Serville, 1843), Halobates micans Eschscheltz, 1822, and Microvelia pulchella Westwood, 1834. The results presented here highlight for the first time the presence of new intracellular Wolbachia strains in Gerroidea colonising tropical aquatic environments like mangrove habitats from inlands to sea shore.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Arthropods* / microbiology
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • Heteroptera*
  • Phylogeny
  • Wolbachia* / genetics

Substances

  • DNA, Bacterial

Grants and funding

This research was funded in the frame of the projects MALIN, grant number 2018-FED-1084, and INSULA, grant number 2020-FED-45, both funded by the European Union and the Guadeloupe Regional Council under the European Research and Development Funds (ERDF) 2014- 2020 program. https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls_en#erdf Suzanne Conjard was supported by a grant from the Guadeloupe Regional Council. https://www.regionguadeloupe.fr/accueil/#_ The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.