Publications

3819

ABSTRACT Here we investigated the bacterial endosymbionts of weevils of the genus Curculio . From all four species of Curculio weevils examined, a novel group of bacterial gene sequences were consistently identified. Molecular phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that the sequences formed a distinct clade in the Gammaproteobacteria , which was not related to previously known groups of weevil endosymbionts such as Nardonella spp. and Sodalis -allied symbionts. In situ hybridization revealed that the bacterium was intracellularly harbored in a bacteriome associated with larval midgut. In adult females, the bacterium was localized in the germalia at the tip of each overiole, suggesting vertical transmission via ovarial passage. Diagnostic PCR surveys detected high prevalence of the bacterial infection in natural host populations. Electron microscopy identified the reduced cell wall of the bacterial cells, and the bacterial genes exhibited AT-biased nucleotide composition and accelerated molecular evolution, which are suggestive of a long-lasting endosymbiotic association. On the basis of these results, we conclude that the novel endocellular bacteria represent the primary symbiont of Curculio weevils and proposed the designation “ Candidatus Curculioniphilus buchneri.” In addition to “ Ca. Curculioniphilus,” we identified Sodalis -allied gammaproteobacterial endosymbionts from the chestnut weevil, Curculio sikkimensis , which exhibited partial infection frequencies in host insect populations and neither AT-biased nucleotide composition nor accelerated molecular evolution. We suggest that such Sodalis -allied secondary symbionts in weevils might provide a potential source for symbiont replacements, as has occurred in an ancestor of Sitophilus grain weevils.

The citrus disease Huanglongbing (HLB) is highly destructive in many citrus-growing regions of the world. The putative causal agent of this disease, ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’, is difficult to culture, and Koch's postulates have not yet been fulfilled. As a result, efforts have focused on obtaining the genome sequence of ‘Ca. L. asiaticus’ in order to give insight on the physiology of this organism. In this work, three next-generation high-throughput sequencing platforms, 454, Solexa, and SOLiD, were used to obtain metagenomic DNA sequences from phloem tissue of Florida citrus trees infected with HLB. A culture-independent, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-independent analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA sequences showed that the only bacterium present within the phloem metagenome was ‘Ca L. asiaticus’. No viral or viroid sequences were identified within the metagenome. By reference assembly, the phloem metagenome contained sequences that provided 26-fold coverage of the ‘Ca. L. asiaticus’ contigs in GenBank. By the same approach, phloem metagenomic data yielded less than 0.2-fold coverage of five other alphaproteobacterial genomes. Thus, phloem metagenomic DNA provided a PCR-independent means of verifying the presence of ‘Ca L. asiaticus’ in infected tissue and strongly suggests that no other disease agent was present in phloem. Analysis of these metagenomic data suggest that this approach has a detection limit of one ‘Ca. Liberibacter’ cell for every 52 phloem cells. The phloem sample sequenced here is estimated to have contained 1.7 ‘Ca. Liberibacter’ cells per phloem cell.