Abstract:The wMel Wolbachia strain was known for cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI)-induction and blocking the transmission of dengue. However, it is unknown whether it can establish and induce CI in a non-dipteran host insect. Here we artificially transferred wMel from Drosophila melanogaster into the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Fluorescence in situ hybridisation demonstrated that wMel had successfully transfected the new host. Reciprocal crossing was conducted with wMel-transfected and wild-type isofemale lines, indicatin… Show more
“…Increasing the number of compatible and incompatible crosses would be needed to decide whether the lack of statistical significance in the data presented here is due to the lack of a biological effect or due to the effect being just weak; for technical reasons, additional crosses are impractical at the point of writing this manuscript. In contrast to our results, Wolbachia w Mel, once transinfected into other hosts, induced a high level of incompatibility, such as in Drosophila simulans (Poinsot, Bourtzis, Markakis, Savakis, & Merçot, 1998), in the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Zhou & Li, 2016) and in the mosquito Aedes aegypti (Hoffmann, Iturbe‐Ormaetxe, et al, 2014; Hoffmann, Coy, Gibbard, & Pelz‐Stelinski, 2014; Walker et al, 2011) (Table 1).…”
Wolbachia, intracellular endosymbionts, are estimated to infect about half of all arthropod species. These bacteria manipulate their hosts in various ways for their maximum benefits. The rising global temperature may accelerate species migration, and thus, horizontal transfer of Wolbachia may occur across species previously not in contact. We transinfected and then cured the alpine fly Drosophila nigrosparsa with Wolbachia strain wMel to study its effects on this species. We found low Wolbachia titer, possibly cytoplasmic incompatibility, and an increase in locomotion of both infected larvae and adults compared with cured ones. However, no change in fecundity, no impact on heat and cold tolerance, and no change in wing morphology were observed. Although Wolbachia increased locomotor activities in this species, we conclude that D. nigrosparsa may not benefit from the infection. Still, D. nigrosparsa can serve as a host for Wolbachia because vertical transmission is possible but may not be as high as in the native host of wMel, Drosophila melanogaster.
“…Increasing the number of compatible and incompatible crosses would be needed to decide whether the lack of statistical significance in the data presented here is due to the lack of a biological effect or due to the effect being just weak; for technical reasons, additional crosses are impractical at the point of writing this manuscript. In contrast to our results, Wolbachia w Mel, once transinfected into other hosts, induced a high level of incompatibility, such as in Drosophila simulans (Poinsot, Bourtzis, Markakis, Savakis, & Merçot, 1998), in the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Zhou & Li, 2016) and in the mosquito Aedes aegypti (Hoffmann, Iturbe‐Ormaetxe, et al, 2014; Hoffmann, Coy, Gibbard, & Pelz‐Stelinski, 2014; Walker et al, 2011) (Table 1).…”
Wolbachia, intracellular endosymbionts, are estimated to infect about half of all arthropod species. These bacteria manipulate their hosts in various ways for their maximum benefits. The rising global temperature may accelerate species migration, and thus, horizontal transfer of Wolbachia may occur across species previously not in contact. We transinfected and then cured the alpine fly Drosophila nigrosparsa with Wolbachia strain wMel to study its effects on this species. We found low Wolbachia titer, possibly cytoplasmic incompatibility, and an increase in locomotion of both infected larvae and adults compared with cured ones. However, no change in fecundity, no impact on heat and cold tolerance, and no change in wing morphology were observed. Although Wolbachia increased locomotor activities in this species, we conclude that D. nigrosparsa may not benefit from the infection. Still, D. nigrosparsa can serve as a host for Wolbachia because vertical transmission is possible but may not be as high as in the native host of wMel, Drosophila melanogaster.
“…5). The absolute quantification method was used, in which wsp copy number amplified from experimental samples is compared against known concentrations of a plasmid standard [56, 63–67]. Fig.…”
Background
Little is known about how bacterial endosymbionts colonize host tissues. Because many insect endosymbionts are maternally transmitted, egg colonization is critical for endosymbiont success.
Wolbachia
bacteria, carried by approximately half of all insect species, provide an excellent model for characterizing endosymbiont infection dynamics. To date, technical limitations have precluded stepwise analysis of germline colonization by
Wolbachia.
It is not clear to what extent titer-altering effects are primarily mediated by growth rates of
Wolbachia
within cell lineages or migration of
Wolbachia
between cells.
Results
The objective of this work is to inform mechanisms of germline colonization through use of optimized methodology. The approaches are framed in terms of nutritional impacts on
Wolbachia
. Yeast-rich diets in particular have been shown to suppress
Wolbachia
titer in the
Drosophila melanogaster
germline. To determine the extent of
Wolbachia
sensitivity to diet, we optimized 3-dimensional, multi-stage quantification of
Wolbachia
titer in maternal germline cells. Technical and statistical validation confirmed the identity of
Wolbachia
in vivo
,
the reproducibility of
Wolbachia
quantification and the statistical power to detect these effects. The data from adult feeding experiments demonstrated that germline
Wolbachia
titer is distinctly sensitive to yeast-rich host diets in late oogenesis. To investigate the physiological basis for these nutritional impacts, we optimized methodology for absolute
Wolbachia
quantification by real-time qPCR. We found that yeast-rich diets exerted no significant effect on bodywide
Wolbachia
titer, although ovarian titers were significantly reduced. This suggests that host diets affects
Wolbachia
distribution between the soma and late stage germline cells. Notably, relative qPCR methods distorted apparent
wsp
abundance, due to altered host DNA copy number in yeast-rich conditions. This highlights the importance of absolute quantification data for testing mechanistic hypotheses.
Conclusions
We demonstrate that absolute quantification of
Wolbachia,
using well-controlled cytological and qPCR-based methods, creates new opportunities to determine how bacterial abundance within the germline relates to bacterial distribution within the body. This methodology can be applied to further test germline infection dynamics in response to chemical treatments, genetic conditions, new host/endosymbiont combinations, or potentially ada...
“…Wolbachia are maternally transmitted and have evolved several strategies to manipulate host reproduction including parthenogenesis, feminization, male killing and cytoplasmic incompatibility to facilitate their own proliferation and transmission (Weeks & Breeuwer, 2001;Zheng et al, 2011a;Beckmann et al, 2017;LePage et al, 2017;Miyata et al, 2017;Harumoto et al, 2018). In the last decade, several lines of evidence have suggested that Wolbachia can be used as environmentally friendly biocontrol agents to control insect pest populations and disease vectors (McMeniman et al, 2009;Hoffmann et al, 2011;Moreira et al, 2011;Nguyen et al, 2015;Zhou & Li, 2016;Aliota et al, 2016aAliota et al, , 2016bGarcia et al, 2019).…”
As one of the most successful intracellular symbiotic bacteria, Wolbachia can infect many arthropods and nematodes. Wolbachia infection usually affects the reproduction of their hosts to promote their own proliferation and transmission. Currently, most of the studies focus on the mechanisms of Wolbachia interactions with host reproduction. However, in addition to distribution in the reproductive tissues, Wolbachia also infect various somatic tissues of their hosts, including the brain. This raises the potential that Wolbachia may influence some somatic processes, such as behaviors in their hosts. So far, information about the effects of Wolbachia infection on host behavior is still very limited. The present review presents the current literature on different aspects of the influence of Wolbachia on various behaviors, including sleep, learning and memory, mating, feeding and aggression in their insect hosts. We then highlight ongoing scientific efforts in the field that need addressing to advance this field, which can have significant implications for further developing Wolbachia as environmentally friendly biocontrol agents to control insect‐borne diseases and agricultural pests.
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