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J Bacteriol, May 1998, p. 2373-2378, Vol. 180, No. 9
0021-9193/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Cloning and Characterization of a Gene Encoding the
Major Surface Protein of the Bacterial Endosymbiont
Wolbachia pipientis
Henk R.
Braig,1
Weiguo
Zhou,1,2
Stephen L.
Dobson,1 and
Scott L.
O'Neill1,*
Section of Vector Biology, Department of
Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine,
New Haven, Connecticut 06520,1 and
Institute of Genetics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China2
Received 7 November 1997/Accepted 24 February 1998
The maternally inherited intracellular symbiont Wolbachia
pipientis is well known for inducing a variety of reproductive
abnormalities in the diverse arthropod hosts it infects. It has been
implicated in causing cytoplasmic incompatibility, parthenogenesis, and
the feminization of genetic males in different hosts. The molecular mechanisms by which this fastidious intracellular bacterium causes these reproductive and developmental abnormalities have not yet been
determined. In this paper, we report on (i) the purification of one of
the most abundantly expressed Wolbachia proteins from infected Drosophila eggs and (ii) the subsequent cloning
and characterization of the gene (wsp) that encodes it. The
functionality of the wsp promoter region was also
successfully tested in Escherichia coli. Comparison of
sequences of this gene from different strains of Wolbachia
revealed a high level of variability. This sequence variation
correlated with the ability of certain Wolbachia strains to
induce or rescue the cytoplasmic incompatibility phenotype in infected
insects. As such, this gene will be a very useful tool for
Wolbachia strain typing and phylogenetic analysis, as well
as understanding the molecular basis of the interaction of Wolbachia with its host.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Yale University,
60 College St., New Haven, CT 06520-8034. Phone: (203) 785 3285. Fax: (203) 785 4782. E-mail: scott.oneill{at}yale.edu.
J Bacteriol, May 1998, p. 2373-2378, Vol. 180, No. 9
0021-9193/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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