Hiroshi Arai, Masatoshi Ueda, Tatsuya Hirano, Naoya Akizuki, Shiou-Ruei Lin, Duong Kieu Hanh, Jaka Widada, Muhammad Saifur Rohman, Madoka Nakai, Yasuhisa Kunimi, Le Van Vang, Arman Wijonarko, Maki N Inoue
Wolbachia is a ubiquitous endosymbiotic bacterium that manipulates insect reproduction. A notable feature of Wolbachia is male killing (MK), whereby sons of infected females are killed during development; however, the evolutionary processes by which Wolbachia acquired the MK ability remain unclear. The tea tortrix moth Homona magnanima (Tortricidae) harbours three non-MK Wolbachia strains (wHm-a, wHm-b and wHm-c) and an MK strain wHm-t. Although wHm-t and wHm-c are closely related, only wHm-t has an MK-associated prophage region...
December 9, 2023: Environmental Microbiology Reports