Wolbachia is a common maternally inherited bacterial endosymbiont of insects. Many species of whiteflies and their endoparasitoids exhibit interspecific variations/ species complexes which can be analysed through the variations between the host and the parasitoid using molecular markers. This study characterized the occurrence of Wolbachia in the whitefly Aleurodicus rugioperculatus and its parasitoid Encarsia guadeloupae. The Wolbachia surface protein(wsp) (450-600 bp) sequenced from the host-parasitoid collected from the field populations at Karnataka was analysed. The comparison of these sequences in the NCBI database through BLAST and ORF analysis revealed the presence of two new sequences infected with Wolbachia from the samples collected on the coconut palms (Cocos nucifera). The genetic relatedness of these has been brought out using the wsp gene through PCR.
Keywords
Wolbachia, Aleurodicus rugioperculatus, Encarsia guadeloupae, wsp, host, parasitoid, species, transitions, transversions, genetic relatedness, BLAST, ORF and phylogeny.
User
Font Size
Information