Individual, naturally occurring
Phlebotomus mongolensis
and
Phlebotomus caucasicus
from Iran were screened for infections with the maternally inherited intracellular Rickettsia-like bacterium
Wolbachia pipientis
via targeting a major surface protein gene (
wsp). The main objective of this study was to determine if
W. pipientis could be detected in these species. The sandflies were screened using polymerase chain reaction to amplify a fragment of the
Wolbachia surface protein gene. The obtained sequences were edited and aligned with database sequences to identify
W. pipientis haplotypes. Two strains of
Wolbachia were found. Strain Turk 54 (accession EU780683) is widespread and has previously been reported in
Phlebotomus papatasi
and other insects. Strain Turk 07 (accession KC576916) is a novel strain, found for first time in the two sister species. A-group strains of
W. pipientis occur throughout much of the habitat of these sandflies. It is possible that
Wolbachia is transferred via horizontal transmission. Horizontal transfer could shed light on sandfly control because
Wolbachia is believed to drive a deleterious gene into sandflies that reduces their natural population density. With regard to our findings in this study, we can conclude that one species of sandfly can be infected with different
Wolbachia strains and that different species of sandflies can be infected with a common strain.
