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MBE Advance Access published online on September 9, 2008
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msn199
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© The Authors
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Research Article

Non-Random Wolbachia Infection Status Of Drosophila melanogaster Strains With Different MtDNA Haplotypes

Maria D. S. Nunes, Viola Nolte and Christian Schlötterer*

Institut für Populationsgenetik, Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien, Austria

* Corresponding author: Christian Schlötterer, Institut für Populationsgenetik, Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210 Wien, Austria/Europe, Tel.: +43-1-25077-5603 or -4300, Fax: +43-1-25077-5693, christian.schloetterer{at}vu-wien.ac.at

Received for publication February 11, 2008. Revision received June 2, 2008. Revision received August 14, 2008. Accepted for publication August 29, 2008.

Wolbachia are maternally inherited bacteria, which typically spread in the host population by inducing cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). In Drosophila melanogaster Wolbachia is quite common but CI is variable, with most of the studies reporting low levels of CI. Surveying mtDNA variation and infection status in a worldwide D. melanogaster collection we found that the Wolbachia infection was not randomly distributed among flies with different mtDNA haplotypes. This preferential infection of some mtDNA haplotypes could be caused by a recent spread of mtDNA haplotypes associated with the infection. The comparison of contemporary D. melanogaster samples with lines collected more than 50 years ago shows that indeed one haplotype with a high incidence of Wolbachia infection has increased in frequency. Consistent with this observation we found that the acquisition of a Wolbachia infection in a population from Crete was accompanied with an almost complete mtDNA replacement, with the Wolbachia associated haplotype becoming abundant. While it is difficult to identify the evolutionary forces causing the global increase of wMel, the parallel sweep of Wolbachia and a mtDNA haplotype suggests a fitness advantage of the Wolbachia infection.

Key Words: Drosophila melanogaster • mtDNA • Wolbachia • Selection


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