Diminutive, degraded but dissimilar: <i>Wolbachia</i> genomes from filarial nematodes do not conform to a single paradigm.



Lefoulon, Emilie, Clark, Travis, Guerrero, Ricardo, Cañizales, Israel, Cardenas-Callirgos, Jorge Manuel, Junker, Kerstin, Vallarino-Lhermitte, Nathaly, Makepeace, Benjamin L ORCID: 0000-0002-6100-6727, Darby, Alistair C ORCID: 0000-0002-3786-6209, Foster, Jeremy M
et al (show 2 more authors) (2020) Diminutive, degraded but dissimilar: <i>Wolbachia</i> genomes from filarial nematodes do not conform to a single paradigm. Microbial genomics, 6 (12). pp. 1-21.

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Abstract

<i>Wolbachia</i> are alpha-proteobacteria symbionts infecting a large range of arthropod species and two different families of nematodes. Interestingly, these endosymbionts are able to induce diverse phenotypes in their hosts: they are reproductive parasites within many arthropods, nutritional mutualists within some insects and obligate mutualists within their filarial nematode hosts. Defining <i>Wolbachia</i> 'species' is controversial and so they are commonly classified into 17 different phylogenetic lineages, termed supergroups, named A-F, H-Q and S. However, available genomic data remain limited and not representative of the full <i>Wolbachia</i> diversity; indeed, of the 24 complete genomes and 55 draft genomes of <i>Wolbachia</i> available to date, 84 % belong to supergroups A and B, exclusively composed of <i>Wolbachia</i> from arthropods. For the current study, we took advantage of a recently developed DNA-enrichment method to produce four complete genomes and two draft genomes of <i>Wolbachia</i> from filarial nematodes. Two complete genomes, <i>w</i>Ctub and <i>w</i>Dcau, are the smallest <i>Wolbachia</i> genomes sequenced to date (863 988 bp and 863 427 bp, respectively), as well as the first genomes representing supergroup J. These genomes confirm the validity of this supergroup, a controversial clade due to weaknesses of the multilocus sequence typing approach. We also produced the first draft <i>Wolbachia</i> genome from a supergroup F filarial nematode representative (<i>w</i>Mhie), two genomes from supergroup D (<i>w</i>Lsig and <i>w</i>Lbra) and the complete genome of <i>w</i>Dimm from supergroup C. Our new data confirm the paradigm of smaller <i>Wolbachia</i> genomes from filarial nematodes containing low levels of transposable elements and the absence of intact bacteriophage sequences, unlike many <i>Wolbachia</i> from arthropods, where both are more abundant. However, we observe differences among the <i>Wolbachia</i> genomes from filarial nematodes: no global co-evolutionary pattern, strong synteny between supergroup C and supergroup J <i>Wolbachia,</i> and more transposable elements observed in supergroup D <i>Wolbachia</i> compared to the other supergroups. Metabolic pathway analysis indicates several highly conserved pathways (haem and nucleotide biosynthesis, for example) as opposed to more variable pathways, such as vitamin B biosynthesis, which might be specific to certain host-symbiont associations. Overall, there appears to be no single <i>Wolbachia</i>-filarial nematode pattern of co-evolution or symbiotic relationship.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: filarial nematodes, genomics, symbiosis, target enrichment, Wolbachia
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 12 Jan 2021 11:45
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2023 23:05
DOI: 10.1099/mgen.0.000487
Open Access URL: https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000487
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URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3110915