Molecular Ecology Group, Department of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria.
Sci Rep. 2021 May 31;11(1):11336. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-90857-5.
Wolbachia are maternally inherited endosymbionts that infect nearly half of all arthropod species. Wolbachia manipulate their hosts to maximize their transmission, but they can also provide benefits such as nutrients and resistance against viruses to their hosts. The Wolbachia strain wMel was recently found to increase locomotor activities and possibly trigger cytoplasmic incompatibility in the transinfected fly Drosophila nigrosparsa. Here, we investigated, in females of both D. melanogaster and D. nigrosparsa, the gene expression between animals uninfected and infected with wMel, using RNA sequencing to see if the two Drosophila species respond to the infection in the same or different ways. A total of 2164 orthologous genes were used. The two fly species responded to the infection in different ways. Significant changes shared by the fly species belong to the expression of genes involved in processes such as oxidation-reduction process, iron-ion binding, and voltage-gated potassium-channel activity. We discuss our findings also in the light of how Wolbachia survive within both the native and the novel host.
沃尔巴克氏体是一种母系遗传的内共生体，感染了近一半的节肢动物物种。沃尔巴克氏体操纵其宿主以最大限度地传播，但它们也可以为宿主提供营养和抵抗病毒等好处。最近发现，沃尔巴克氏体菌株 wMel 增加了转染果蝇 Drosophila nigrosparsa 的运动活性，并可能引发细胞质不兼容。在这里，我们研究了未感染和感染 wMel 的 D. melanogaster 和 D. nigrosparsa 雌性个体之间的基因表达，使用 RNA 测序来观察这两个果蝇物种是否以相同或不同的方式对感染做出反应。总共使用了 2164 个同源基因。这两个果蝇物种对感染的反应方式不同。两个果蝇物种共享的显著变化属于参与氧化还原过程、铁离子结合和电压门控钾通道活性等过程的基因表达。我们还根据沃尔巴克氏体在原生和新宿主中存活的方式来讨论我们的发现。
