Heterogeneity in the response of different subtypes ofDrosophila melanogasterenteroendocrine cells to viral infections

Abstract

<jats:title>Summary</jats:title><jats:p>Single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) offers the possibility to monitor both host and pathogens transcriptomes at the cellular level. Here, public scRNA-seq data from <jats:italic>Drosophila melanogaster</jats:italic> have been used to compare the differences in replication strategy and cellular response between two viruses, Thika virus (TV) and <jats:italic>D. melanogaster</jats:italic> Nora virus (DMelNV) in enteroendocrine cells (EEs). TV and DMelNV exhibited different patterns of replication and for TV, accumulation varied according to cell subtype. Cells infected with TV underwent down-regulation of genes that represent bottlenecks in the fruit fly interactome, while cells infected with DMelNV went through a down-expression of translation-related genes that represent both hubs and bottlenecks in the host interactome. In contrast, flies infected with DMelNV show only a systemic level down-regulation of bottleneck genes. Here, we use scRNA-seq to highlight the differences and commonalities between cellular response to TV and DMelNV and between cellular and systemic response to DMelNV.</jats:p>