Species in Wolbachia? Proposal for the designation of ‘Candidatus Wolbachia bourtzisii’, ‘Candidatus Wolbachia onchocercicola’, ‘Candidatus Wolbachia blaxteri’, ‘Candidatus Wolbachia brugii’, ‘Candidatus Wolbachia taylori’, ‘Candidatus Wolbachia collembol

Wolbachia are highly extended bacterial endosymbionts that infect arthropods and filarial nematodes and produce contrasting phenotypes on their hosts. Wolbachia taxonomy has been understudied. Currently, Wolbachia strains are classified into phylogenetic supergroups. Here we applied phylogenomic analyses to study Wolbachia evolutionary relationships and examined metrics derived from their genome sequences such as average nucleotide identity (ANI), in silico DNA–DNA hybridization (DDH), G + C content, and synteny to shed light on the taxonomy of these bacteria. Draft genome sequences of strains wDacA and wDacB obtained from the carmine cochineal insect Dactylopius coccus were included. Although all analyses indicated that each Wolbachia supergroup represents a distinct evolutionary lineage, we found that some of the analyzed supergroups showed enough internal heterogeneity to be considered as assemblages of more than one species. Thus, supergroups would represent supraspecific groupings. Consequently, Wolbachia pipientis nomen species would apply only to strains of supergroup B and we propose the designation of ‘Candidatus Wolbachia bourtzisii’, ‘Candidatus Wolbachia onchocercicola’, ‘Candidatus Wolbachia blaxterii’, ‘Candidatus Wolbachia brugii’, ‘Candidatus Wolbachia taylorii’, ‘Candidatus Wolbachia collembolicola’ and ‘Candidatus Wolbachia multihospitis’ for other supergroups.