Sex-based transcriptome assemblies of the parasitoid wasp , a host of the manipulative heritable symbiont .

Parasitoid wasps in the genus are commonly used as biological pest control agents of whiteflies and armored scale insects in greenhouses or the field. They are also hosts of the bacterial endosymbiont , which can cause reproductive manipulation phenotypes, including parthenogenesis, feminization, and cytoplasmic incompatibility (the last is mainly studied in ). Despite their biological and economic importance, there are no published genomes and only one public transcriptome.

Hiding in plain sight: Cryptic enemies are found on cochineal (Hemiptera: Dactylopiidae), a scale insect of economic and cultural significance.

Cochineal is the common name for cactus-feeding scale insects in the Dactylopiidae. These ruby-red insects include the domesticated dye insect . and congeners have been introduced around the world, some accidentally, to become pests of prickly pear cactus species (), and some intentionally, for dye production or biological control of pest In the northern Sonoran Desert (Tucson, AZ, USA), we studied the enemy complex of and on and characterized two cryptic enemies, a coccinellid beetle predator and a parasitoid wasp.

Quality over quantity: unraveling the contributions to cytoplasmic incompatibility caused by two coinfecting Cardinium symbionts.

Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) is a common form of reproductive sabotage caused by maternally inherited bacterial symbionts of arthropods. CI is a two-step manipulation: first, the symbiont modifies sperm in male hosts which results in the death of fertilized, uninfected embryos. Second, when females are infected with a compatible strain, the symbiont reverses sperm modification in the fertilized egg, allowing offspring of infected females to survive and spread the symbiont to high frequencies in a population.

Development of Common Leaf-Footed Bug Pests Depends on the Presence and Identity of Their Environmentally Acquired Symbionts.

Many beneficial symbioses between bacteria and their terrestrial arthropod hosts are vertically transmitted from mother to offspring, ensuring that the progeny acquire necessary partners. Unusually, in several families of coreoid and lygaeoid bugs (Hemiptera), nymphs must instead ingest the beneficial symbiont, (), from the environment early in development. We studied the effects of on development of two species of leaf-footed bug (Coreidae) in the genus , and We found no evidence for vertical transmission of the symbiont but found stark differences in performance between symbiotic and aposymbiotic individuals.

Localization During Its Parasitoid Wasp Host's Development Provides Insights Into Cytoplasmic Incompatibility.

Arthropods harbor heritable intracellular symbionts that may manipulate host reproduction to favor symbiont transmission. In cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), the symbiont sabotages the reproduction of infected males such that high levels of offspring mortality result when they mate with uninfected females. In crosses with infected males and infected females, however (the "rescue" cross), normal numbers of offspring are produced.

Development of a multi-locus sequence typing system helps reveal the evolution of Cardinium hertigii, a reproductive manipulator symbiont of insects.

Background: Cardinium is an intracellular bacterial symbiont in the phylum Bacteroidetes that is found in many different species of arthropods and some nematodes. This symbiont is known to be able to induce three reproductive manipulation phenotypes, including cytoplasmic incompatibility. Placing individual strains of Cardinium within a larger evolutionary context has been challenging because only two, relatively slowly evolving genes, 16S rRNA gene and Gyrase B, have been used to generate phylogenetic trees, and consequently, the relationship of different strains has been elucidated in only its roughest form.

Exposure to opposing temperature extremes causes comparable effects on Cardinium density but contrasting effects on Cardinium-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility.

Terrestrial arthropods, including insects, commonly harbor maternally inherited intracellular symbionts that confer benefits to the host or manipulate host reproduction to favor infected female progeny. These symbionts may be especially vulnerable to thermal stress, potentially leading to destabilization of the symbiosis and imposing costs to the host. For example, increased temperatures can reduce the density of a common reproductive manipulator, Wolbachia, and the strength of its crossing incompatibility (cytoplasmic incompatibility, or CI) phenotype.

What Goes Up Might Come Down: the Spectacular Spread of an Endosymbiont Is Followed by Its Decline a Decade Later.

Facultative, intracellular bacterial symbionts of arthropods may dramatically affect host biology and reproduction. The length of these symbiont-host associations may be thousands to millions of years, and while symbiont loss is predicted, there have been very few observations of a decline of symbiont infection rates. In a population of the sweet potato whitefly species (Bemisia tabaci MEAM1) in Arizona, USA, we documented the frequency decline of a strain of Rickettsia in the Rickettsia bellii clade from near-fixation in 2011 to 36% of whiteflies infected in 2017.

Transcriptome Sequencing Reveals Novel Candidate Genes for -Caused Cytoplasmic Incompatibility and Host-Cell Interaction.

Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) is an intriguing, widespread, symbiont-induced reproductive failure that decreases offspring production of arthropods through crossing incompatibility of infected males with uninfected females or with females infected with a distinct symbiont genotype. For years, the molecular mechanism of CI remained unknown. Recent genomic, proteomic, biochemical, and cell biological studies have contributed to understanding of CI in the alphaproteobacterium and implicate genes associated with the WO prophage.

Cytological analysis of cytoplasmic incompatibility induced by suggests convergent evolution with its distant cousin .

Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) is a conditional sterility in numerous arthropods that is caused by inherited, intracellular bacteria such as Matings between males carrying CI-inducing and uninfected females, or between males and females infected with different strains, result in progeny that die during very early embryogenesis. Multiple studies in diploid () and haplodiploid () insects have shown that CI- cause a failure of the paternally derived chromatin from resolving into distinct chromosomes. This leads to the formation of chromatin bridges and other mitotic defects as early as the first mitotic division, and to early mitotic arrest.

"Darwin's corollary" and cytoplasmic incompatibility induced by Cardinium may contribute to speciation in Encarsia wasps (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae).

The potential importance of cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI)-inducing bacterial symbionts in speciation of their arthropod hosts has been debated. Theoretical advances have led to a consensus that a role is plausible when CI is combined with other isolating barriers. However, the insect model systems Nasonia and Drosophila are the only two experimental examples documented.

Conditional fitness benefits of the Rickettsia bacterial symbiont in an insect pest.

Inherited bacterial symbionts are common in arthropods and can have strong effects on the biology of their hosts. These effects are often mediated by host ecology. The Rickettsia symbiont can provide strong fitness benefits to its insect host, Bemisia tabaci, under laboratory and field conditions.

Dynamics of the endosymbiont Rickettsia in an insect pest.

A new heritable bacterial association can bring a fresh set of molecular capabilities, providing an insect host with an almost instantaneous genome extension. Increasingly acknowledged as agents of rapid evolution, inherited microbes remain underappreciated players in pest management programs. A Rickettsia bacterium was tracked sweeping through populations of an invasive whitefly provisionally described as the "B" or "MEAM1" of the Bemisia tabaci species complex, in the southwestern USA.

Characteristics, phenotype, and transmission of Wolbachia in the sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), and its parasitoid Eretmocerus sp. nr. emiratus (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae).

Wolbachia is a common intracellular bacterial endosymbiont of insects, causing a variety of effects including reproductive manipulations such as cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). In this study, we characterized Wolbachia in the whitefly Bemisia tabaci and in the whitefly parasitoid Eretmocerus sp. nr.

Bacterial endosymbionts in field-collected samples of Trialeurodes sp. nr. abutiloneus (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae).

Facultative bacterial endosymbionts are common, influential associates of arthropods, yet their movement among host species has not been well documented. Plant-mediated transmission of Rickettsia has been shown for the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Bemisia tabaci in USA cotton fields harbors the secondary symbionts Rickettsia and Hamiltonella, and co-occurs with Trialeurodes sp.

Factors affecting the strength of Cardinium-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility in the parasitic wasp Encarsia pergandiella (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae).

Bacteria that cause cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) are among the most common maternally transmitted parasites of insects. In CI, uninfected females produce few or no offspring when they mate with infected males and, as a result, are often at a reproductive disadvantage relative to infected females. Two different bacteria are known to cause CI, Wolbachia and Cardinium.

Comparative genomics suggests an independent origin of cytoplasmic incompatibility in Cardinium hertigii.

Terrestrial arthropods are commonly infected with maternally inherited bacterial symbionts that cause cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). In CI, the outcome of crosses between symbiont-infected males and uninfected females is reproductive failure, increasing the relative fitness of infected females and leading to spread of the symbiont in the host population. CI symbionts have profound impacts on host genetic structure and ecology and may lead to speciation and the rapid evolution of sex determination systems.

Rapid spread of a bacterial symbiont in an invasive whitefly is driven by fitness benefits and female bias.

Maternally inherited bacterial symbionts of arthropods are common, yet symbiont invasions of host populations have rarely been observed. Here, we show that Rickettsia sp. nr.

Almost there: transmission routes of bacterial symbionts between trophic levels.

Many intracellular microbial symbionts of arthropods are strictly vertically transmitted and manipulate their host's reproduction in ways that enhance their own transmission. Rare horizontal transmission events are nonetheless necessary for symbiont spread to novel host lineages. Horizontal transmission has been mostly inferred from phylogenetic studies but the mechanisms of spread are still largely a mystery.

Population biology of cytoplasmic incompatibility: maintenance and spread of Cardinium symbionts in a parasitic wasp.

Bacteria that cause cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) are perhaps the most widespread parasites of arthropods. CI symbionts cause reproductive failure when infected males mate with females that are either uninfected or infected with a different, incompatible strain. Until recently, CI was known to be caused only by the alpha-proteobacterium Wolbachia.

Characterization of a 'Bacteroidetes' symbiont in Encarsia wasps (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae): proposal of 'Candidatus Cardinium hertigii'.

Previously, analysis of 16S rDNA sequences placed a newly discovered lineage of bacterial symbionts of arthropods in the 'Bacteroidetes'. This symbiont lineage is associated with a number of diverse host reproductive manipulations, including induction of parthenogenesis in several Encarsia parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae). In this study, electron microscopy and phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA and gyrB genes of symbionts from Encarsia hispida and Encarsia pergandiella are used to describe and further characterize these bacteria.

A bacterial symbiont in the Bacteroidetes induces cytoplasmic incompatibility in the parasitoid wasp Encarsia pergandiella.

Vertically transmitted symbionts of arthropods have been implicated in several reproductive manipulations of their hosts. These include cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), parthenogenesis induction in haplodiploid species (PI), feminization and male killing. One symbiont lineage in the alpha-Proteobacteria, Wolbachia, is the only bacterium known to cause all of these effects, and has been thought to be unique in causing CI, in which the fecundity of uninfected females is reduced after mating with infected males.