Cloning and characterization of a gene encoding phage-related tail protein (PrTP) of endosymbiont Wolbachia

Wolbachia is an obligatory, maternally inherited intracellular bacterium, known to infect a wide range of arthropods. It has been implicated in causing cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), parthenogenesis, the feminization of genetic males and male-killing in different hosts. However, the molecular mechanisms by which this fastidious bacterium causes these reproductive abnormalities have not yet been determined. In this study, we report on the cloning and characterization of the gene encoding phage-related tail protein (PrTP) from Wolbachia in Drosophila melanogaster CantonS (wMelCS) and from Wolbachia in Drosophila melanogaster yw67c23 (wMel) by representational difference analysis (RDA) and ligation-mediated PCR (LM-PCR). The functionality of a bipartite nuclear localization signal sequence (NLS) of the gene was also successfully tested in Drosophila S2 cells. PrTP expression in various strains of Wolbachia was investigated. Our results suggest that PrTP may not induce CI directly. However, the existence of prtp provided direct evidence of phage-mediated horizontal gene transfer (HGT) that might play an important role in a variety of reproductive abnormalities of Wolbachia.