Kagemann Catherine H, Bubnell Jaclyn E, Colocho Gabriela M, Arana Daniela C, Aquadro Charles F
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Genetics. 2025 Mar 17;229(3). doi: 10.1093/genetics/iyae220.
Wolbachia pipientis are maternally transmitted endosymbiotic bacteria commonly found in arthropods and nematodes. These bacteria manipulate reproduction of the host to increase their transmission using mechanisms, such as cytoplasmic incompatibility, that favor infected female offspring. The underlying mechanisms of reproductive manipulation by W. pipientis remain unresolved. Interestingly, W. pipientis infection partially rescues female fertility in flies containing hypomorphic mutations of bag of marbles (bam) in Drosophila melanogaster, which plays a key role in germline stem cell daughter differentiation. Using RNA-seq, we find that W. pipientis infection in bam hypomorphic females results in differential expression of many of bam's genetic and physical interactors and enrichment of ubiquitination and histone lysine methylation genes. We find that W. pipientis also rescues the fertility and germline stem cell functions of a subset of these genes when knocked down with RNAi in a wild-type bam genotype. Our results show that W. pipientis interacts with ubiquitination and histone lysine methylation genes which could be integral to the mechanism by which W. pipientis modulates germline stem cell gene function.
嗜虫沙雷氏菌是一种通过母体传播的内共生细菌，常见于节肢动物和线虫体内。这些细菌利用诸如细胞质不相容等机制操纵宿主的繁殖，以增加其传播，这些机制有利于受感染的雌性后代。嗜虫沙雷氏菌进行生殖操纵的潜在机制仍未得到解决。有趣的是，在果蝇中，嗜虫沙雷氏菌感染能部分挽救含有“弹珠袋”（bam）低表达突变的雌性果蝇的生育能力，而“弹珠袋”在生殖系干细胞子代分化中起关键作用。通过RNA测序，我们发现嗜虫沙雷氏菌感染bam低表达雌性果蝇会导致许多与bam存在遗传和物理相互作用的基因发生差异表达，以及泛素化和组蛋白赖氨酸甲基化基因的富集。我们发现，当在野生型bam基因型中通过RNA干扰敲低这些基因的一部分时，嗜虫沙雷氏菌也能挽救其生育能力和生殖系干细胞功能。我们的结果表明，嗜虫沙雷氏菌与泛素化和组蛋白赖氨酸甲基化基因相互作用，这可能是嗜虫沙雷氏菌调节生殖系干细胞基因功能机制的一个组成部分。
