| Summary: | Among insects, <i>Wolbachia</i> is an exceedingly common bacterial endosymbiont with a range of consequences of infection. Despite the frequency of <i>Wolbachia</i> infection, very little is known about this bacteria’s diversity and role within hosts, especially within ant hosts. In this study, we analyze the occurrence and diversity of <i>Wolbachia</i> across the spiny ants (<i>Polyrhachis</i>), a large and geographically diverse genus. <i>Polyrhachis</i> samples from throughout the host genus’ phylogenetic and biogeographical range were first screened for single infections of <i>Wolbachia</i> using the <i>wsp</i> gene and Sanger sequencing. The multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme was then used on these singly infected samples to identify the <i>Wolbachia</i> strains. A <i>Wolbachia</i> phylogeny was inferred from the <i>Polyrhachis</i> samples analyzed in this study as well as other Formicidae MLST profiles from the MLST online database. We hypothesized that three key host factors were impacting <i>Wolbachia</i> diversity within the <i>Polyrhachis</i> genus: biogeography, phylogeny, and species level. The results suggest that the phylogeny and biogeography of <i>Polyrhachis</i> hosts have no impact on <i>Wolbachia</i> diversity; however, species level may have some limited influence. Additionally, <i>Wolbachia</i> strains appear to group according to being either Old World or New World strains. Among the taxa able to form complete MLST allelic profiles, all twenty are seemingly new strains.
|
|---|