Draft genome of Wolbachia pipientis wBol1-b, endosymbiont of Hypolimnas bolina.. Wolbachia pipientis wBol1-b

The endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis causes diverse and sometimes dramatic phenotypes in its invertebrate hosts. We have sequenced the genome of the strain wBol1-b, found in the butterfly Hypolimnas bolina, which kills the male offspring of infected hosts during embyronic development and is closely related to the non-male-killing strain wPip from Culex pipiens. The results of this project will provide a useful resource for future investigations of the genetic bases of male killing in Wolbachia, and further our understanding of the role played in Wolbachia genome evolution by frequent horizontal gene transfer. This is the first Wolbachia genome project to be completed using a combination of a novel method for preparing sequencing material and next-generation sequencing techniques. Because the ratio of Wolbachia to host DNA is typically very low, previous Wolbachia genome projects have required extensive and laborious purifications from extremely large numbers of host individuals before sequencing. Here we have overcome this difficulty by using a short period of cell culture to amplify Wolbachia originally isolated from a single host individual and employing a simple and rapid purification method to obtain exceptionally pure endosymbiont material for sequencing.