Population genomics of the Wolbachia endosymbiont in Drosophila melanogaster

Mark F. Richardson, Lucy A. Weinert, John J. Welch, Raquel S. Linheiro, Michael M. Magwire, Francis M. Jiggins, Casey M. Bergman
(Submitted on 25 May 2012 (v1), last revised 2 Aug 2012 (this version, v2))

Wolbachia are maternally-inherited symbiotic bacteria commonly found in arthropods, which are able to manipulate the reproduction of their host in order to maximise their transmission. Here we use whole genome resequencing data from 290 lines of Drosophila melanogaster from North America, Europe and Africa to predict Wolbachia infection status, estimate cytoplasmic genome copy number, and reconstruct Wolbachia and mtDNA genome sequences. Complete Wolbachia and mitochondrial genomes show congruent phylogenies, consistent with strict vertical transmission through the maternal cytoplasm and recurrent loss of Wolbachia in multiple populations. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis reveals that the most recent common ancestor of all Wolbachia and mitochondrial genomes in D. melanogaster dates to around 8,000 years ago. We find evidence for a recent incomplete global replacement of ancestral Wolbachia and mtDNA lineages, which is likely to be one of several similar incomplete replacement events that have occurred since the out-of-Africa migration that allowed D. melanogaster to colonize worldwide habitats.