Identification of Wolbachia Strains in Two Sibling Species of Neoseiulus Predatory Mites and Their Prey

Wolbachia screening in mites is necessary for understanding of how their biological functions can be affected, including development of approaches to induce parthenogenesis, making the predator’s cultures more effective and stable. Here we studied Wolbachia infection in two sibling species of Neoseiulus predatory mites (one thelytokous and another bisexual) as well as their feed mites to test two working hypotheses: 1) a thelytokous mite Neoseiulus agrestis harbors Wolbachia, unlike its bisexual sibling species Neoseiulus neoagrestis and 2) feed mites are not the source of Wolbachia detection in Neoseiulus. To test these hypotheses, we performed PCR screening and multilocus sequence typing. It showed Wolbachia infection in N. agrestis, but not N. neoagrestis. Since the former is a thelytokous species, and the latter is not, Wolbachia might contribute to this peculiarity. The Wolbachia isolate from N. agrestis belongs to the supergroup B, being similar to the strains from lepidopteran insects as well as Syrphidae (Diptera). Wolbachia infection status of the thelytokous species N. agrestis is shown for the first time. As for the feed mites, Wolbachia was not detected in Carpoglyphus lactis and Thyreophagus entomophagus, but occurred in Tyrophagus putrescentiae. That bacterial strain formed a basal branch in relation to the supergroup B and demonstrated only a partial genetic identity to the Czech isolate from T. putrescentiae. Thus, Wolbachia from the predatory and feed mites are genetically different. The new Wolbachia sequences are deposited to GenBank serving as an important source of molecular data for comparative studies of Wolbachia parasites.