Isolation and characterization of the bacteriophage WO from Wolbachia, an arthropod endosymbiont》.pdfVIP

BBRC Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 317 (2004) 1183–1188 /locate/ybbrc Isolation and characterization of the bacteriophage WO from Wolbachia, an arthropod endosymbiont Yukiko Fujii,a,1 Takeo Kubo,a Hajime Ishikawa,b and Tetsuhiko Sasakia,* a Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan b The University of the Air, Wakaba, Mihama-ku, Chiba 2618586, Japan Received 6 March 2004 Abstract Wolbachia is a group of obligate symbiotic bacteria found in many insects and other arthropods. The presence of Wolbachia alters reproduction in the host, but the mechanisms are unknown. Molecular biological studies of Wolbachia have delayed sig- nificantly, and one of the reasons is the lack of transformation techniques of this bacterium. In the present study, bacteriophage particles were isolated from Wolbachia for the first time. The purified phage had an isometric head that was approximately 40 nm in diameter and contained linear double-stranded DNA of approximately 20 kbp. Partial sequence information (total of 20,484 bp) revealed that there were 24 open reading frames including a structural gene module, and genes for replication and lysogenic con- version. This bacteriophage is the only known mobile genetic element potentially used for transformation of Wolbachia. 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Wolbachia; Bacteriophage; Transformation; Symbiont Wolbachia is a group of gram-negati