Bacterial endosymbiont infections in ‘living fossils’: a case study of North American vaejovid scorpions

Bacterial endosymbionts are common among arthropods, and maternally inherited forms can affect the reproductive and behavioural traits of their arthropod hosts. The prevalence of bacterial endosymbionts and their role in scorpion evolution have rarely been investigated. In this study, 61 samples fro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular ecology resources 2014-07, Vol.14 (4), p.789-793
Main Author: Bryson, Robert W., Jr
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Arthropoda
arthropods
Bacteria
Bacteria - genetics
Bacteria - isolation & purification
Bacterial Physiological Phenomena
Cardinium
case studies
DNA barcoding
DNA Primers - genetics
endosymbionts
evolution
genes
Genetic Testing - methods
hosts
mitochondrial DNA
Rickettsia
scorpion
Scorpiones
Scorpions - microbiology
screening
Spiroplasma
Symbiosis
Vaejovidae
Wolbachia
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Summary:Bacterial endosymbionts are common among arthropods, and maternally inherited forms can affect the reproductive and behavioural traits of their arthropod hosts. The prevalence of bacterial endosymbionts and their role in scorpion evolution have rarely been investigated. In this study, 61 samples from 40 species of scorpion in the family Vaejovidae were screened for the presence of the bacterial endosymbionts Cardinium, Rickettsia, Spiroplasma and Wolbachia. No samples were infected by these bacteria. However, one primer pair specifically designed to amplify Rickettsia amplified nontarget genes of other taxa. Similar off‐target amplification using another endosymbiont‐specific primer was also found during preliminary screenings. Results caution against the overreliance on previously published screening primers to detect bacterial endosymbionts in host taxa and suggest that primer specificity may be higher in primers targeting nuclear rather than mitochondrial genes.
ISSN:1755-098X
1755-0998
DOI:10.1111/1755-0998.12220