Dera Kiswend-Sida M, Barro Daouda Tande, Kaboré Bénéwendé Aristide, Gstöttenmayer Fabian, Dieng Mouhamadou M, Pagabeleguem Soumaïla, Weiss Brian L, Fiorenza Giulia, Piccinno Riccardo, Malacrida Anna R, Aksoy Serap, de Beer Chantel J, Mach Robert L, Vreysen Marc J B, Abd-Alla Adly M M
Insect Pest Control Laboratory, Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Vienna, Austria.
Insectarium de Bobo Dioulasso-Campagne d'Eradication de la mouche tse-tse et de la Trypanosomose (IBD-CETT), Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.
Insect Sci. 2025 May 26. doi: 10.1111/1744-7917.70078.
Tsetse flies (Glossina spp.) can vector the parasites (Trypanosoma spp.) that cause the socioeconomically devastating neglected tropical diseases human and animal African trypanosomoses. In addition to this parasite, tsetse can harbor four genera of endosymbiotic bacteria, including Wigglesworthia, Sodalis, Wolbachia, and Spiroplasma, which are functionally crucial for the fly's physiological homeostasis and/or are potentially useful for the development of disease control strategies. Recent discoveries indicate that Spiroplasma infection negatively impacts tsetse fecundity. Conversely, housing the bacterium can benefit its fly host by making it unusually refractory to infection with parasitic African trypanosomes. In this study, we assessed the physiological impact of Spiroplasma infection on a laboratory colony of Glossina fuscipes fuscipes (Gff). For this purpose, two distinct Gff colonies were established: a Spi- colony that harbors a low Spiroplasma infection prevalence and a Spi+ colony that harbors a high Spiroplasma infection prevalence. Fitness parameters for both colonies revealed no significant differences in the length of larval development, adult eclosion rate, and flight propensity. However, flies from the Spi+ colony presented with lower fecundity and higher overall mortality than did individuals from the Spi- colony. Furthermore, males from the Spi- colony exhibited a competitive mating advantage over their Spi+ counterparts in a field cage setting. These findings have potential implications for the improvement of mass-rearing of Gff for sterile insect technique (SIT) applications.
采采蝇（舌蝇属）可传播导致对社会经济造成严重破坏的被忽视热带病——人类和动物非洲锥虫病的寄生虫（锥虫属）。除了这种寄生虫外，采采蝇还可携带四种内共生细菌，包括维氏菌属、 Sodalis菌属、沃尔巴克氏体属和螺原体属，这些细菌对采采蝇的生理稳态在功能上至关重要，和/或可能有助于疾病控制策略的制定。最近的发现表明，螺原体感染会对采采蝇的繁殖力产生负面影响。相反，携带这种细菌对其采采蝇宿主有益，因为它对寄生性非洲锥虫的感染具有异常的抵抗力。在本研究中，我们评估了螺原体感染对实验室饲养的fuscipesfuscipes采采蝇（Gff）群体的生理影响。为此，建立了两个不同的Gff群体：一个螺原体感染率低的Spi-群体和一个螺原体感染率高的Spi+群体。两个群体的适合度参数显示，幼虫发育长度、成虫羽化率和飞行倾向没有显著差异。然而，Spi+群体的采采蝇比Spi-群体的个体繁殖力更低，总体死亡率更高。此外，在野外笼子环境中，Spi-群体的雄性比Spi+群体的雄性表现出竞争交配优势。这些发现对改进用于不育昆虫技术（SIT）应用的Gff大规模饲养具有潜在意义。
