Prevalence of Wolbachia infection in field natural population of the apricot seed wasp Eurytoma samsonowi (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae)

Obligate endosymbiont bacteria associated with insects are naturally providing their hosts with essential nutrients such as vitamins and amino acids and biological services including protection from pathogens. In this study, we aimed to investigate the presence of Wolbachia infection among males and females of the parasitic apricot seed wasp (ASW) Eurytoma samsonowi Vassiliev (Vassiliev Petrograd 11: 1-15, 1915) (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae), a very harmful pest of apricot (Prunus armeniaca), in the oasis of Gafsa, Southern-West of Tunisia. The detection of Wolbachia infection was assessed based on the amplification of the Wolbachia surface protein (wsp) gene and a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) as a universal genotyping tool for Wolbachia involving the analyses of genes gatB, coxA, hcpA, fbpA, and ftsz. Confirming the screening results, Wolbachia was detected in the natural apricot wasp for the first time, with a significant difference between males (5%) and females (59%) based on wsp gene. All Wolbachia strains identified in E. samsonowi were clustered among supergroups B of Wolbachia.