TY - JOUR AU - Duplouy, Anne AU - Pranter, Robin AU - Warren-Gash, Haydon AU - Tropek, Robert AU - Wahlberg, Niklas PY - 2020 DA - 2020/10/20 TI - Towards unravelling Wolbachia global exchange: a contribution from the Bicyclus and Mylothris butterflies in the Afrotropics JO - BMC Microbiology SP - 319 VL - 20 IS - 1 AB - Phylogenetically closely related strains of maternally inherited endosymbiotic bacteria are often found in phylogenetically divergent, and geographically distant insect host species. The interspecies transfer of the symbiont Wolbachia has been thought to have occurred repeatedly, facilitating its observed global pandemic. Few ecological interactions have been proposed as potential routes for the horizontal transfer of Wolbachia within natural insect communities. These routes are however likely to act only at the local scale, but how they may support the global distribution of some Wolbachia strains remains unclear. SN - 1471-2180 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-020-02011-2 DO - 10.1186/s12866-020-02011-2 ID - Duplouy2020 ER -