Wolbachia is an intracellular endosymbiont that has been reported from many arthropods and nematodes. However, there is little known of Wolbachia from either ticks or fleas. We reported here the prevalence of Wolbachia in natural populations of lone star ticks (Amblyomma americanum) and three species of fleas from the coastal region of Georgia. Nested PCR amplification targeting a fragment of 16S rRNA gene was used for Wolbachia screening. A total of 399 lone star ticks were sampled in three locations and the average prevalence of Wolbachia infection was 11%. A total of 1011 fleas (of three species) collected on dogs and cats from four different county Animal Shelters were screened for Wolbachia. Overall, 40% of the fleas were infected with Wolbachia. All positive samples were also amplified with a fragment of wsp and ftsZ genes to confirm the Wolbachia infection. Phylogenetic analysis using the 16S rDNA sequences from positives, together with the published Wolbachia rDNA downloaded from the GenBank, confirmed that our positive samples of ticks and fleas were infected with Wolbachia.
Species 1: Ixodida Ixodidae Amblyomma americanum (lone star tick)
Species 2: Siphonaptera Pulicidae Ctenocephalides canis (dog flea)
Keywords: Wolbachia, endosymbiont, nested PCR, wsp gene, ftsZ gene, vector
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA