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Male Killing and Incomplete Inheritance of a Novel Spiroplasma in the Moth Ostrinia zaguliaevi

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Abstract

Bacteria of the genus Spiroplasma are widely found in plants and arthropods. Some of the maternally transmitted Spiroplasma endosymbionts in arthropods are known to kill young male hosts (male killing). Here, we describe a new case of Spiroplasma-induced male killing in a moth, Ostrinia zaguliaevi. The all-female trait caused by Spiroplasma was maternally inherited for more than 11 generations but was spontaneously lost in several lineages. Antibiotic treatment eliminated the Spiroplasma infection and restored the 1:1 sex ratio. The survival rates and presence/absence of the W chromosome in the embryonic and larval stages of O. zaguliaevi showed that males were selectively killed, exclusively during late embryogenesis in all-female broods. Based on phylogenetic analyses of 16S rRNA, dnaA and rpoB gene sequences, the causative bacteria were identified as Spiroplasma belonging to the tick symbiont Spiroplasma ixodetis clade. Electron microscopy confirmed bacterial structures in the follicle cells and follicular sheath of adult females. Although many congeneric Ostrinia moths harbor another sex ratio-distorting bacterium (Wolbachia), only O. zaguliaevi harbors Spiroplasma.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Drs. Sadahiro Tatsuki and Sugihiko Hoshizaki (The University of Tokyo) for advice and technical assistance on the study. JT acknowledges a grant-in-aid from JSPS Excellent Young Researchers Overseas Visit Program (no. 21-7080).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biodiversity Division, National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, Tsukuba, Japan

    Jun Tabata, Hironori Sakamoto, Soichi Kugimiya & Atsushi Mochizuki

  2. Laboratory of Applied Entomology, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Yuuki Hattori, Hironori Sakamoto, Takeshi Fujii & Yukio Ishikawa

  3. Insect-Microbe Research Unit, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, 1-2 Owashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8634, Japan

    Fumiko Yukuhiro & Daisuke Kageyama

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  1. Jun Tabata
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Correspondence to Daisuke Kageyama.

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Tabata, J., Hattori, Y., Sakamoto, H. et al. Male Killing and Incomplete Inheritance of a Novel Spiroplasma in the Moth Ostrinia zaguliaevi . Microb Ecol 61, 254–263 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-010-9799-y

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