Dudzic Jan P, McPherson Audrey E, Taylor Keelie E, Eben Astrid, Abram Paul K, Perlman Steve J
Department of Biology, 3800 Finnerty Rd., University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2, Canada; Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) - Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Plant Protection in Fruit Crops and Viticulture, Dossenheim, Germany.
Department of Biology, 3800 Finnerty Rd., University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2, Canada; Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Pacific Forestry Centre, 506 Burnside Road West, Victoria, BC, V8Z 1M5, Canada.
J Invertebr Pathol. 2025 Mar;209:108274. doi: 10.1016/j.jip.2025.108274. Epub 2025 Jan 31.
Some species of insects harbour strains of the endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia that do not cause obvious reproductive manipulations, and so it is unclear why they persist in host populations. There is some evidence that some of these endosymbionts may provide their hosts with protection against viruses, which would help to explain their persistence, but few studies have explored associations between Wolbachia and naturally occurring, common viruses in natural populations. Here, we asked whether individuals of the invasive vinegar fly Drosophila suzukii infected with the wSuz strain of Wolbachia were less likely to be infected by naturally occurring viruses in its invaded range, in western North America and in Europe. First, using next-generation sequencing, we conducted a virome survey of adult and larval D. suzukii in British Columbia, Canada, finding eight candidate RNA viruses and two candidate DNA viruses; all but one have not been reported previously. Only the previously described Teise virus, an RNA virus, was abundant in our virome survey. We then screened individual flies from British Columbia and Germany for Teise virus and Wolbachia. Wolbachia-infected D. suzukii from the field were not less likely to be infected by Teise virus. Overall, our results do not provide conclusive evidence that wSuz provides strong protection for D. suzukii against viruses that are common in natural populations. However, the other viruses that we discovered in this study deserve further characterization in terms of their pathogenicity to D. suzukii and the frequency and dynamics of infection in wild populations.
一些昆虫物种体内携带着共生细菌沃尔巴克氏体的菌株，这些菌株不会引起明显的生殖操控，因此尚不清楚它们为何会在宿主种群中持续存在。有证据表明，其中一些共生菌可能会为宿主提供抗病毒保护，这有助于解释它们的持续存在，但很少有研究探讨沃尔巴克氏体与自然种群中天然存在的常见病毒之间的关联。在这里，我们研究了感染沃尔巴克氏体wSuz菌株的入侵性醋蝇铃木氏果蝇，在其入侵范围内（北美西部和欧洲）是否不太可能被天然存在的病毒感染。首先，我们利用下一代测序技术，对加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省成年和幼虫阶段的铃木氏果蝇进行了病毒组调查，发现了8种候选RNA病毒和2种候选DNA病毒；除了一种之外，其他所有病毒此前都未曾被报道过。在我们的病毒组调查中，只有之前描述过的RNA病毒Teise病毒数量较多。然后，我们对来自不列颠哥伦比亚省和德国的果蝇个体进行了Teise病毒和沃尔巴克氏体的筛查。在野外感染了沃尔巴克氏体的铃木氏果蝇感染Teise病毒的可能性并没有降低。总体而言，我们的结果并没有提供确凿的证据表明wSuz能为铃木氏果蝇提供强大的保护，使其免受自然种群中常见病毒的侵害。然而，我们在这项研究中发现的其他病毒，在它们对铃木氏果蝇的致病性以及野生种群中感染的频率和动态方面，值得进一步研究。
