Project name: Wolbachia pipientis wBol1-b

Description: The endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis causes diverse andsometimes dramatic phenotypes in its invertebrate hosts. We have sequenced the genome of the strain wBol1-b, found in the butterfly Hypolimnas bolina, which kills the male offspring of infected hosts during embyronic development and is closely related to the non-male-killing strain wPip from Culex pipiens. The results of this project will provide a usefulresource for future investigations of the genetic bases of male killing inWolbachia, and further our understanding of the role played inWolbachia genome evolution by frequent horizontal gene transfer.This is the first Wolbachia genome project to be completed usinga combination of a novel method for preparing sequencing materialand next-generation sequencing techniques. Because the ratio ofWolbachia to host DNA is typically very low, previous Wolbachiagenome projects have required extensive and laborious purificationsfrom extremely large numbers of host individuals before sequencing.Here we have overcome this difficulty by using a short period of cell culture to amplify Wolbachia originally isolated from a single host individual and employing a simple and rapid purification method to obtain exceptionally pure endosymbiont material for sequencing.

Data type: Genome sequencing and assembly

Sample scope: Monoisolate

Release date: 2013-01-11