A novel gut symbiont modulates gene expression of the intracellular bacterium in the stored product mite .

We examined host and bacterial gene expression profiles in the stored product mite co-infected with (wTPut) and (cTPut) while varying the presence of the symbiont (SLS). SLS, a novel symbiont in the family , with a genome size of 1.7 Mb, is found in 16% of mite species in infected cultures. In addition, SLS was detected in mite feces but not in their eggs. Although expression remained unchanged, the presence or absence of SLS significantly affected expression. It indicated that the effect of on SLS was neutral. In SLS-positive samples, exhibited 29 upregulated and 48 downregulated genes compared to SLS-negative samples. Furthermore, gene expression strongly correlated with mite KEGG gene expression in SLS-positive samples. Positive Spearman's correlations between gene expression and mite KEGG immune and regulatory pathways were doubled in SLS-positive compared to SLS-negative samples. The diversity of expressed genes in the mite host decreased in the presence of SLS. had more interacting genes to mite host in SLS-positive samples than without SLS. Transposases are the most affected genes, showing upregulation in the presence of SLS. Correlation analyses revealed interactions between and SLS via mite immune and regulatory pathways, including lysosome, ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, PIK3_Akt, and cGMP-PKG. The results showed that indirectly affects the gut symbionts of mites.IMPORTANCEThis study introduces a new model to analyze interactions between intracellular bacterial symbionts, gut bacterial symbionts, and their mite hosts. Using gene expression correlations, we investigated how the intracellular responds to the novel gut symbiont in the mold mite . The data showed that both mite and gene expression are different in the samples with and without symbionts. In the presence of symbionts, increased the interaction with the mite host in terms of changes in gene expression. The mite immune and regulatory pathway gene expression is differently correlated to genes in relation to symbionts. As a well-known producer of allergens, physiology and thus its allergen production are influenced by both symbionts, potentially affecting the release of allergens into human environments.