da Rocha Fernandes Mariana, Martins Renato, Pessoa Costa Evenilton, Pacidônio Etiene Casagrande, Araujo de Abreu Leonardo, da Silva Vaz Itabajara, Moreira Luciano A, da Fonseca Rodrigo Nunes, Logullo Carlos
Laboratório de Sanidade Animal, Laboratório de Química e Função de Proteínas e Peptídeos and Unidade de Experimentação Animal - RJ, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro (UENF), Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Laboratório de Malária, Centro de Pesquisas René Rachou - Fiocruz, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
PLoS One. 2014 Jun 13;9(6):e98966. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0098966. eCollection 2014.
Wolbachia pipientis, a maternally transmitted bacterium that colonizes arthropods, may affect the general aspects of insect physiology, particularly reproduction. Wolbachia is a natural endosymbiont of Aedes fluviatilis, whose effects in embryogenesis and reproduction have not been addressed so far. In this context, we investigated the correlation between glucose metabolism and morphological alterations during A. fluviatilis embryo development in Wolbachia-positive (W+) and Wolbachia-negative (W-) mosquito strains. While both strains do not display significant morphological and larval hatching differences, larger differences were observed in hexokinase activity and glycogen contents during early and mid-stages of embryogenesis, respectively. To investigate if glycogen would be required for parasite-host interaction, we reduced Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 (GSK-3) levels in adult females and their eggs by RNAi. GSK-3 knock-down leads to embryonic lethality, lower levels of glycogen and total protein and Wolbachia reduction. Therefore, our results suggest that the relationship between A. fluviatilis and Wolbachia may be modulated by glycogen metabolism.
嗜虫沃巴赫氏体是一种通过母体传播、寄生于节肢动物体内的细菌，它可能会影响昆虫生理学的诸多方面，尤其是繁殖方面。嗜虫沃巴赫氏体是溪流伊蚊的一种天然内共生菌，其在胚胎发育和繁殖过程中的作用迄今尚未得到研究。在此背景下，我们研究了嗜虫沃巴赫氏体阳性（W+）和阴性（W-）蚊株在溪流伊蚊胚胎发育过程中葡萄糖代谢与形态改变之间的相关性。虽然这两种蚊株在形态和幼虫孵化方面没有显著差异，但在胚胎发育早期和中期，己糖激酶活性和糖原含量分别出现了较大差异。为了研究糖原是否是寄生虫与宿主相互作用所必需的，我们通过RNA干扰降低了成年雌蚊及其卵中的糖原合酶激酶-3（GSK-3）水平。GSK-3基因敲低导致胚胎致死、糖原和总蛋白水平降低以及嗜虫沃巴赫氏体数量减少。因此，我们的研究结果表明，溪流伊蚊与嗜虫沃巴赫氏体之间的关系可能受糖原代谢的调节。
