Genetic variation and phylogenetic analysis of Spiroplasma in wild G. tachinoides

Among the 35 samples sequenced, 14 sequences from Comoe in Burkina Faso, two from the CIRDES colony, and two from Walewale in Ghana were used for the analysis. For the four genes used for the sequencing, 2,885 base pairs of sequence were generated. The comparison of the sequences showed a global nucleotide mutation rate of 0.06% with two SNPs (Table 4). These two SNPs were found on the parE gene (1 SNP /745 bp) and rpoB gene (1 SNP /1455). None of these substitutions were non-synonymous and the percentage of amino-acid mutations was 0.40% (1/248) for the parE gene and 0.20% (1/485) for the rpoB gene. For the parE gene, the mutation resulted in the replacement of isoleucine to valine, but for the rpoB gene from phenylalanine to serine. All samples from all locations showed the same profile for the 16S rRNA and fruR genes. In Burkina Faso and Ghana, two genotypes were found, while only one was detected for CIRDES (Tables 5 and 6). Three different haplotypes were found in the sampling areas with a specific haplotype for the CIRDES colony and Burkina Faso and Ghana sharing the same haplotypes (Table 6, Fig. 6).