Wolbachia-mediated protection of Drosophila melanogaster against systemic infection with its natural viral pathogen Drosophila C virus does not involve changes in levels of highly abundant miRNAs

Monsanto-Hearne, Verna; Johnson, Karyn N.

doi:10.1099/jgv.0.001064

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…The observed Wolbachia infection densities in the W8- w and W3- w cell lines are lower than previously reported for Drosophila , mosquito and sand fly host cells [35, 43, 44]. While higher Wolbachia infection densities have been reported to result in pathogen blocking and cytoplasmic incompatibility [41, 45, 46], other studies have suggested that low level infections can also result in cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) and possibly pathogen blocking [47, 48]. Few studies have examined for Wolbachia infections in native Culicoides spp.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Transfection of Culicoides sonorensis biting midge cell lines with Wolbachia pipientis

et al. 2019

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Background: Biting midges of the genus Culicoides vector multiple veterinary pathogens and are difficult to control. Endosymbionts particularly Wolbachia pipientis may offer an alternative to control populations of Culicoides and/or impact disease transmission in the form of population suppression or replacement strategies.Methods: Culicoides sonorensis cell lines were transfected with a Wolbachia infection using a modified shell vial technique. Infections were confirmed using PCR and cell localization using fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). The stability of Wolbachia infections and density was determined by qPCR. qPCR was also used to examine immune genes in the IMD, Toll and JACK/STAT pathways to determine if Wolbachia were associated with an immune response in infected cells.Results: Here we have transfected two Culicoides sonorensis cell lines (W3 and W8) with a Wolbachia infection (walbB) from donor Aedes albopictus Aa23 cells. PCR and FISH showed the presence of Wolbachia infections in both C. sonorensis cell lines. Infection densities were higher in the W8 cell lines when compared to W3. In stably infected cells, genes in the immune Toll, IMD and JAK/STAT pathways were upregulated, along with Attacin and an Attacin-like antimicrobial peptides. Conclusions:The successful introduction of Wolbachia infections in C. sonorensis cell lines and the upregulation of immune genes, suggest the utility of using Wolbachia for a population replacement and/or population suppression approach to limit the transmission of C. sonorensis vectored diseases. Results support the further investigation of Wolbachia induced pathogen inhibitory effects in Wolbachia-infected C. sonorensis cell lines and the introduction of Wolbachia into C. sonorensis adults via embryonic microinjection to examine for reproductive phenotypes and host fitness effects of a novel Wolbachia infection.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Transfection of Culicoides sonorensis biting midge cell lines with Wolbachia pipientis

et al. 2019

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“…We chose this approach because single primers sometimes fail to amplify their corresponding gene fragments in some strains (Simões et al ., 2011). As a positive control, we used extracted DNA of Drosophila melanogaster with a confirmed Wolbachia infection by w Mel strain (Monsanto‐Hearne and Johnson, 2018) for all PCRs. As part of a separate study, the amplicons generated by this study, including 16S, gatB, coxA and fbpA from 75 Wolbachia positive samples, were sent for Illumina pooled amplicon sequencing with 10–30 K coverage (Sanaei et al ., 2021a).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wolbachia in scale insects: a distinct pattern of infection frequencies and potential transfer routes via ant associates

Sanaei

Lin

Cook

et al. 2021

Environmental Microbiology

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Wolbachia is one of the most successful endosymbiotic bacteria of arthropods. Known as the 'master of manipulation', Wolbachia can induce a wide range of phenotypes in its host that can have farreaching ecological and evolutionary consequences and may be exploited for disease and pest control. However, our knowledge of Wolbachia's distribution and the infection rate is unevenly distributed across arthropod groups such as scale insects. We fitted a distribution of within-species prevalence of Wolbachia to our data and compared it to distributions fitted to an up-to-date dataset compiled from surveys across all arthropods. The estimated distribution parameters indicate a Wolbachia infection frequency of 43.6% (at a 10% prevalence threshold) in scale insects. Prevalence of Wolbachia in scale insects follows a distribution similar to exponential decline (most species are predicted to have low prevalence infections), in contrast to the U-shaped distribution estimated for other taxa (most species have a very low or very high prevalence). We observed no significant associations between Wolbachia infection and scale insect traits. Finally, we screened for Wolbachia in scale insect's ecological associates. We found a positive correlation between Wolbachia infection in scale insects and their ant associates, pointing to a possible route of horizontal transfer of Wolbachia.

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“…Wolbachia wMel-infected and uninfected Drosophila and mosquito cell lines (86) (87) or in live flies (88). In Ae.…”

Section: Previous Studies Have Not Found Significant Changes In the A...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Aedes aegypti microRNAs in response to Wolbachia wAlbB infection and their potential role in mosquito longevity

Bishop

Hussain

Hugo

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The mosquito Aedes aegypti is the primary vector of a range of medically important viruses including dengue, Zika, West Nile, yellow fever, and chikungunya viruses. The endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia pipientis wAlbB strain has emerged as a promising biocontrol agent for blocking viral transmission by Ae. aegypti. In order to predict and manage the long-term efficacy of its application in the field, a thorough understanding of the molecular interactions between symbiont, host, and pathogen is required. Wolbachia are known to influence host physiology in a variety of ways including reproduction, innate immunity, metabolism, and longevity. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are highly conserved small non-coding RNAs that are important regulators of gene expression in eukaryotes and viruses. A number of miRNAs have been functionally described in Drosophila and mosquitoes as having roles in regulating a broad range of biological processes, as well as facilitating Wolbachia maintenance. We generated the first chromosomal map of Ae. aegypti miRNAs, and compared the miRNA expression profiles between a wAlbB-transinfected Ae. aegypti mosquito line and a tetracycline cleared derivative using deep small RNA-sequencing. We found a number of miRNAs to be modulated by wAlbB infection. We also found that some miRNAs were upregulated with age in a manner that was affected by wAlbB. By selectively inhibiting some differentially expressed miRNAs, we identified miR-2946-3p and miR-317-3p as effecting mosquito longevity.ImportanceWolbachia is an endosymbiotic bacterium found in about 65% of insect species. It is mostly known for reproductive manipulations of the host, and also blocking replication of negative sense RNA viruses. Transinfection of Wolbachia into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which transmit a variety of arboviruses, including dengue virus, has provided a novel biological approach in reducing transmission of arboviruses. To gain a better understanding of Wolbachia-mosquito interactions, we investigated the impact of Wolbachia on the microRNA profile of Ae. aegypti mosquitoes. Besides identifying several differentially expressed microRNAs and their putative target genes, we found alterations of microRNAs in mosquitoes due to age. Inhibition of two miRNAs led to reduced mosquito life span. The outcomes provide insights into underlying molecular mechanisms involved in Wolbachia-host interactions.

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Wolbachia-mediated protection of Drosophila melanogaster against systemic infection with its natural viral pathogen Drosophila C virus does not involve changes in levels of highly abundant miRNAs

Cited by 8 publications

References 48 publications

Transfection of Culicoides sonorensis biting midge cell lines with Wolbachia pipientis

Transfection of Culicoides sonorensis biting midge cell lines with Wolbachia pipientis

Wolbachia in scale insects: a distinct pattern of infection frequencies and potential transfer routes via ant associates

Analysis of Aedes aegypti microRNAs in response to Wolbachia wAlbB infection and their potential role in mosquito longevity

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