DETECTION OF GENES OF WOLBACHIA IN FIVE SPECIES OF INSECTS FROM VIDARBHA REGION OF MAHARASHTRA (INDIA)

Abstract

Wolbachia are maternally inherited endosymbiotic bacteria widely distributed among arthropods, especially insects. These bacteria are known to influence host reproduction through mechanisms such as cytoplasmic incompatibility, parthenogenesis, feminization, and male killing. Due to these characteristics, Wolbachia has gained attention in evolutionary biology and biological control studies. The present study aimed to detect the presence of different Wolbachia genes in selected insect species collected from the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, India. Molecular detection was carried out using PCR amplification of four commonly used Wolbachia gene markers: wsp, wspec, WO-orf7, and ftsZB. The amplified gene fragments were sequenced and the resulting sequences were submitted to the GenBank database of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The results confirm the presence of Wolbachia in five insect hosts and provide baseline molecular data for future studies related to strain typing and multilocus sequence typing (MLST).