mmpc-logo mmpc-logo
twitter-logo    bluesky-logo
| Create Account | login
Publication
Prophage WO genes recapitulate and enhance Wolbachia-induced cytoplasmic
incompatibility.
Authors LePage DP, Metcalf JA, Bordenstein SR, On J, Perlmutter JI, Shropshire JD,
Layton EM, Funkhouser-Jones LJ, Beckmann JF, Bordenstein SR
Submitted By Submitted Externally on 3/30/2017
Status Published
Journal Nature
Year 2017
Date Published 3/1/2017
Volume : Pages 543 : 243 - 247
PubMed Reference 28241146
Abstract The genus Wolbachia is an archetype of maternally inherited intracellular
bacteria that infect the germline of numerous invertebrate species worldwide.
They can selfishly alter arthropod sex ratios and reproductive strategies to
increase the proportion of the infected matriline in the population. The most
common reproductive manipulation is cytoplasmic incompatibility, which results
in embryonic lethality in crosses between infected males and uninfected females.
Females infected with the same Wolbachia strain rescue this lethality. Despite
more than 40 years of research and relevance to symbiont-induced speciation, as
well as control of arbovirus vectors and agricultural pests, the bacterial genes
underlying cytoplasmic incompatibility remain unknown. Here we use comparative
and transgenic approaches to demonstrate that two differentially transcribed,
co-diverging genes in the eukaryotic association module of prophage WO from
Wolbachia strain wMel recapitulate and enhance cytoplasmic incompatibility. Dual
expression in transgenic, uninfected males of Drosophila melanogaster crossed to
uninfected females causes embryonic lethality. Each gene additively augments
embryonic lethality in crosses between infected males and uninfected females.
Lethality associates with embryonic defects that parallel those of wild-type
cytoplasmic incompatibility and is notably rescued by wMel-infected embryos in
all cases. The discovery of cytoplasmic incompatibility factor genes cifA and
cifB pioneers genetic studies of prophage WO-induced reproductive manipulations
and informs the continuing use of Wolbachia to control dengue and Zika virus
transmission to humans.




Menu

Home
Contact
About MMPC
Animal Husbandry
Tests Data
Search Data
Analysis
Clients
MMPC Centers

Newsletter

Interested in receiving MMPC News?
twitter-logo Mouse Phenotyping
@NationalMMPC



2017 National MMPC. All Rights Reserved.