Wolbachia is a vertically transmitted, obligate intracellular bacterium infecting ~40% of all known species of arthropods, as well as filarial nematodes. The nature of Wolbachia-host interactions ranges from reproductive parasitism to increased fecundity and pathogen protection. Wolbachia reduces the ability of mosquitoes to transmit human pathogens, which is being explored as a novel method for the control of vector-borne diseases like Dengue and Zika.
The mechanisms of Wolbachia blocking the transmission of these diseases are not fully understood. There are studies indicating that Wolbachia-induced changes in the insect immunity could block the virus, however there is no consensus in the literature. A necessary step in the transmission of these diseases is the viral entry into the insect vector. This occurs trough the gut epithelium, highlighting the importance of understanding the interaction of this tissue with microorganisms. We have recently shown that Wolbachia colonizes the Drosophila gut epithelium and affects the gut microbiome composition. Wolbachia’s presence did not affect the gene expression of immune effector molecules from the main regulators of gut immunity, Imd and ROS pathways. Our understanding of the mechanisms of Wolbachia’s colonization of the gut epithelium and modulation of gut microbiome are still very limited.
This work characterizes Wolbachia’s kinetics of colonization in Drosophila midguts. Imaging analysis revealed that Wolbachia colonizes adult and larval midguts in different patterns. We have also characterized a preferential colonization in specific adult midgut sub-regions. We observed that Wolbachia patches are confined to specific midgut subregions, in a pattern similar to the arrangement of intestinal stem cell (ISC) clones. These results led us to hypothesize that Wolbachia colonizes Drosophila midguts by infecting intestinal progenitor cells and spreading vertically to their progeny with limited lateral transmission between neighboring cells. We provide evidence to support this hypothesis by showing that Wolbachia is present in intestinal progenitor cells in all stages of the fly’s life cycle as well as by analyzing the infection status of ISC clones and differentiated cells surrounding ISCs. Finally, we found that ISC proliferation is reduced by the intracellular presence of Wolbachia, which also decreases ISC tumor incidence triggered by the downregulation of Notch signaling specifically in ISCs. These findings will aid in our understanding of Wolbachia tropisms and its phenotypic consequences.
It has been shown that in the Wolbachia wMelPop strain excessive growth of intracellular bacteria leads to damage to the host cell, suggesting a mechanism of controlling intracellular growth in other strains. To better understand the molecular mechanisms behind Wolbachia-Drosophila interactions, we turned to the gonads, as Wolbachia colonization of these tissues has been well characterized. We chose to investigate the interplay between Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) and Wolbachia, as intracellular ROS could regulate bacterial density but also be affected by Wolbachia and play a role in symbiont-related phenotypes. Using direct and indirect measurements of ROS, we show that the pathogenic strain wMelPop increases ROS in the germarium, while the symbiotic strains wMel and wMelCS reduce ROS in the terminal filaments. None of the Wolbachia strains tested affected ROS levels in the testes. In addition, genetically
altering ROS levels in the germline or systemically in the fly did not affect Wolbachia levels in the ovaries. We conclude that ROS does not significantly affect Wolbachia in the fruit fly gonads.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/43983 |
| Date | 05 March 2022 |
| Creators | Vaisman, Natalie |
| Contributors | Frydman, Horacio M. |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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