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Phylogenetic analysis of symbionts in feather-feeding lice of the genus Columbicola: evidence for repeated symbiont replacements

BACKGROUND: Many groups of insects have obligate bacterial symbionts that are vertically transmitted. Such associations are typically characterized by the presence of a monophyletic group of bacteria living in a well-defined host clade. In addition the phylogeny of the symbiotic bacteria is typicall...

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Autores principales: Smith, Wendy A, Oakeson, Kelly F, Johnson, Kevin P, Reed, David L, Carter, Tamar, Smith, Kari L, Koga, Ryuichi, Fukatsu, Takema, Clayton, Dale H, Dale, Colin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3724504/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23725492
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-109
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author Smith, Wendy A
Oakeson, Kelly F
Johnson, Kevin P
Reed, David L
Carter, Tamar
Smith, Kari L
Koga, Ryuichi
Fukatsu, Takema
Clayton, Dale H
Dale, Colin
author_facet Smith, Wendy A
Oakeson, Kelly F
Johnson, Kevin P
Reed, David L
Carter, Tamar
Smith, Kari L
Koga, Ryuichi
Fukatsu, Takema
Clayton, Dale H
Dale, Colin
author_sort Smith, Wendy A
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Many groups of insects have obligate bacterial symbionts that are vertically transmitted. Such associations are typically characterized by the presence of a monophyletic group of bacteria living in a well-defined host clade. In addition the phylogeny of the symbiotic bacteria is typically congruent with that of the host, signifying co-speciation. Here we show that bacteria living in a single genus of feather lice, Columbicola (Insecta: Phthiraptera), present an exception to this typical pattern. RESULTS: The phylogeny of Columbicola spp. symbionts revealed the presence of three candidate clades, with the most species-rich clade having a comb-like topology with very short internodes and long terminal branches. Evolutionary simulations indicate that this topology is characteristic of a process of repeated symbiont replacement over a brief time period. The two remaining candidate clades in our study exhibit high levels of nucleotide substitution, suggesting accelerated molecular evolution due to relaxed purifying selection or smaller effective population size, which is typical of many vertically transmitted insect symbionts. Representatives of the fast-evolving and slow-evolving symbiont lineages exhibit the same localization, migration, and transmission patterns in their hosts, implying direct replacement. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that repeated, independent symbiont replacements have taken place over the course of the relatively recent radiation of Columbicola spp. These results are compatible with the notion that lice and other insects have the capability to acquire novel symbionts through the domestication of progenitor strains residing in their local environment.
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spelling pubmed-37245042013-07-27 Phylogenetic analysis of symbionts in feather-feeding lice of the genus Columbicola: evidence for repeated symbiont replacements Smith, Wendy A Oakeson, Kelly F Johnson, Kevin P Reed, David L Carter, Tamar Smith, Kari L Koga, Ryuichi Fukatsu, Takema Clayton, Dale H Dale, Colin BMC Evol Biol Research Article BACKGROUND: Many groups of insects have obligate bacterial symbionts that are vertically transmitted. Such associations are typically characterized by the presence of a monophyletic group of bacteria living in a well-defined host clade. In addition the phylogeny of the symbiotic bacteria is typically congruent with that of the host, signifying co-speciation. Here we show that bacteria living in a single genus of feather lice, Columbicola (Insecta: Phthiraptera), present an exception to this typical pattern. RESULTS: The phylogeny of Columbicola spp. symbionts revealed the presence of three candidate clades, with the most species-rich clade having a comb-like topology with very short internodes and long terminal branches. Evolutionary simulations indicate that this topology is characteristic of a process of repeated symbiont replacement over a brief time period. The two remaining candidate clades in our study exhibit high levels of nucleotide substitution, suggesting accelerated molecular evolution due to relaxed purifying selection or smaller effective population size, which is typical of many vertically transmitted insect symbionts. Representatives of the fast-evolving and slow-evolving symbiont lineages exhibit the same localization, migration, and transmission patterns in their hosts, implying direct replacement. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that repeated, independent symbiont replacements have taken place over the course of the relatively recent radiation of Columbicola spp. These results are compatible with the notion that lice and other insects have the capability to acquire novel symbionts through the domestication of progenitor strains residing in their local environment. BioMed Central 2013-05-31 /pmc/articles/PMC3724504/ /pubmed/23725492 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-109 Text en Copyright © 2013 Smith et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Smith, Wendy A
Oakeson, Kelly F
Johnson, Kevin P
Reed, David L
Carter, Tamar
Smith, Kari L
Koga, Ryuichi
Fukatsu, Takema
Clayton, Dale H
Dale, Colin
Phylogenetic analysis of symbionts in feather-feeding lice of the genus Columbicola: evidence for repeated symbiont replacements
title Phylogenetic analysis of symbionts in feather-feeding lice of the genus Columbicola: evidence for repeated symbiont replacements
title_full Phylogenetic analysis of symbionts in feather-feeding lice of the genus Columbicola: evidence for repeated symbiont replacements
title_fullStr Phylogenetic analysis of symbionts in feather-feeding lice of the genus Columbicola: evidence for repeated symbiont replacements
title_full_unstemmed Phylogenetic analysis of symbionts in feather-feeding lice of the genus Columbicola: evidence for repeated symbiont replacements
title_short Phylogenetic analysis of symbionts in feather-feeding lice of the genus Columbicola: evidence for repeated symbiont replacements
title_sort phylogenetic analysis of symbionts in feather-feeding lice of the genus columbicola: evidence for repeated symbiont replacements
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3724504/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23725492
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-109
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