Rapid fluorescence-based screening for Wolbachia endosymbionts in Drosophila germ line and somatic tissues.

Wolbachia is a globally distributed bacterial endosymbiont present in arthropods and nematodes. The advent of sensitive PCR-based approaches has greatly facilitated the identification of Wolbachia-infected individuals and analysis of population infection levels. Here, a complementary visual fluorescence-based Wolbachia screening approach is described.