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Invertebrate Microbiology | Spotlight

Two Bacterial Genera, Sodalis and Rickettsia, Associated with the Seal Louse Proechinophthirus fluctus (Phthiraptera: Anoplura)

Bret M. Boyd, Julie M. Allen, Ryuichi Koga, Takema Fukatsu, Andrew D. Sweet, Kevin P. Johnson, David L. Reed
H. Goodrich-Blair, Editor
Bret M. Boyd
aIllinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA
bFlorida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
cGenetics and Genomics Graduate Program, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
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  • ORCID record for Bret M. Boyd
Julie M. Allen
aIllinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA
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Ryuichi Koga
dBioproduction Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
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Takema Fukatsu
dBioproduction Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
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Andrew D. Sweet
aIllinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA
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Kevin P. Johnson
aIllinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA
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David L. Reed
bFlorida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
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H. Goodrich-Blair
University of Wisconsin—Madison
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DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00282-16
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ABSTRACT

Roughly 10% to 15% of insect species host heritable symbiotic bacteria known as endosymbionts. The lice parasitizing mammals rely on endosymbionts to provide essential vitamins absent in their blood meals. Here, we describe two bacterial associates from a louse, Proechinophthirus fluctus, which is an obligate ectoparasite of a marine mammal. One of these is a heritable endosymbiont that is not closely related to endosymbionts of other mammalian lice. Rather, it is more closely related to endosymbionts of the genus Sodalis associated with spittlebugs and feather-chewing bird lice. Localization and vertical transmission of this endosymbiont are also more similar to those of bird lice than to those of other mammalian lice. The endosymbiont genome appears to be degrading in symbiosis; however, it is considerably larger than the genomes of other mammalian louse endosymbionts. These patterns suggest the possibility that this Sodalis endosymbiont might be recently acquired, replacing a now-extinct, ancient endosymbiont. From the same lice, we also identified an abundant bacterium belonging to the genus Rickettsia that is closely related to Rickettsia ricketsii, a human pathogen vectored by ticks. No obvious masses of the Rickettsia bacterium were observed in louse tissues, nor did we find any evidence of vertical transmission, so the nature of its association remains unclear.

IMPORTANCE Many insects are host to heritable symbiotic bacteria. These heritable bacteria have been identified from numerous species of parasitic lice. It appears that novel symbioses have formed between lice and bacteria many times, with new bacterial symbionts potentially replacing existing ones. However, little was known about the symbionts of lice parasitizing marine mammals. Here, we identified a heritable bacterial symbiont in lice parasitizing northern fur seals. This bacterial symbiont appears to have been recently acquired by the lice. The findings reported here provide insights into how new symbioses form and how this lifestyle is shaping the symbiont genome.

FOOTNOTES

    • Received 26 January 2016.
    • Accepted 14 March 2016.
    • Accepted manuscript posted online 18 March 2016.
  • Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/AEM.00282-16.

  • Copyright © 2016 Boyd et al.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

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Two Bacterial Genera, Sodalis and Rickettsia, Associated with the Seal Louse Proechinophthirus fluctus (Phthiraptera: Anoplura)
Bret M. Boyd, Julie M. Allen, Ryuichi Koga, Takema Fukatsu, Andrew D. Sweet, Kevin P. Johnson, David L. Reed
Applied and Environmental Microbiology May 2016, 82 (11) 3185-3197; DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00282-16

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Two Bacterial Genera, Sodalis and Rickettsia, Associated with the Seal Louse Proechinophthirus fluctus (Phthiraptera: Anoplura)
Bret M. Boyd, Julie M. Allen, Ryuichi Koga, Takema Fukatsu, Andrew D. Sweet, Kevin P. Johnson, David L. Reed
Applied and Environmental Microbiology May 2016, 82 (11) 3185-3197; DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00282-16
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