Detection of Wolbachia sp. in Ectomyelois ceratoniae and determination of its taxonomical place in Fars province

Ectomyelois ceratoniae is one of the main pests of pomegranate. By now, no pesticides showed efficient effects on this pest. Biological control, such as changes in the reproduction ability, is a new emerged strategy for control of the population of this pest. This study was aimed to identify the symbiont bacteria in Ectomyelois ceratoniae and to determine their taxonomic classification. In this study, totally 100 infected pomegranate were randomly collected from different parts of Fars providence. After DNA extraction from ovum of the insects, a PCR approach was used to identify any symbiont bacteria in this samples. Following sequencing of the products and their analysis on gene banks, the taxonomic classification of Wolbachia was determined using ClusalX and TreeView. In this study only one sample collected from shiraz was contaminated to Wolbachia. After amplification of wsp gene, OCR produced a 513 bp fragment which is available in gene bank under accession number KF007903. Analysis of the fragment in gene bank showed that this bacterium belonged to subclass Fur8 from group B, referred to as Wolbachia pipientis. According to our knowledge, the present study is the first report of the presence of Wolbachia in E. ceratoniae. Since the sampling were performed through June to August, the low prevalence of the bacterium Wolbachia sp. in these area can be due to effects of temperature, which is an inhibitory factor for growth of the bacterium in the insect.