No detectable effect of Wolbachia w Mel on the prevalence and abundance of the RNA virome of Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

is an endosymbiotic bacterium that can block viral infections in arthropods, generating interest in its potential to control the spread of mosquito-borne disease. is model organism for infection, and the Mel strain of can improve host survival following viral infection. However, it is unclear whether Mel induces anti-viral blocking against the broader native virome of, or whether the major effect of is a reduction in viral abundance rather than viral clearance. We examined the effect of on viral abundance by comparing the total transcriptome of Mel-positive andMel-negative populations sampled from six locations in Australia. In addition, we examined the impact ofMel on individual flies by obtaining transcriptome data from 20 Mel-positive and 20Mel-negative from the location (Melbourne) with highest density ofMel. These data revealed high viral abundance in both -positive and -negative populations and individuals. Notably, none of the viral species identified, representing RNA viruses from at least nine families/floating genera, showed evidence of protection byMel. Although the viral loads of picorna-like viruses are reduced by Mel under experimental conditions, we observed no such effect here. These data show that can harbour abundant RNA viruses regardless of its status and imply that the interaction between and viruses in nature is more complex than simple blocking.

Loss of cytoplasmic incompatibility and minimal fecundity effects explain relatively lowWolbachiafrequencies inDrosophila mauritiana

“…However, it remains unknown which if any these potential fitness benefits underlie Wolbachia spread in nature Kriesner and Hoffmann (2018). For instance, wMel seems to have little effect on viral abundance in wild-caught D. melanogaster (Webster et al 2015;Shi et al 2018).…”

High resolution metagenomic characterization of complex infectomes in paediatric acute respiratory infection

“…This suggests that RNA-based meta-transcriptomics can be subject to false-negative results in some instances. This likely occurs because metagenomic bacterial identification was based on non-rRNA genes whose RNA expression level is often relatively low 25 . However, because they may be indicative of more elevated replication, those bacteria identified by meta-transcriptomics are perhaps more likely relevant to disease manifestation.…”

“…and pathogen abundance [21][22][23][24][25][26] . In addition, the focus on expressed RNA means that the sequence data generated is not dominated by those from the host genome, in turn simplifying pathogen discovery.…”

Similar gut bacterial microbiota in two fruit-feeding moth pests collected from different host species and locations

“…In Drosophila melanogaster , Wolbachia can reduce the richness of Acetobacter (41), but this group was not at a low abundance in PFM. Whether Wolbachia in PFM influences, other microbiota requires a comparison of Wolbachia infected and Wolbachia free lines, which might be generated through antibiotic treatment or by taking advantage of natural polymorphism in infection status within natural populations (42).…”