The Endosymbiotic Bacterium Wolbachia Selectively Kills Male Hosts by Targeting the Masculinizing Gene.
| Autor: | Takahiro Fukui, Munetaka Kawamoto, Keisuke Shoji, Takashi Kiuchi, Sumio Sugano, Toru Shimada, Yutaka Suzuki, Susumu Katsuma |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2015 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | PLoS Pathogens, Vol 11, Iss 7, p e1005048 (2015) |
| Druh dokumentu: | article |
| ISSN: | 1553-7366 1553-7374 |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005048 |
| Popis: | Pathogens are known to manipulate the reproduction and development of their hosts for their own benefit. Wolbachia is an endosymbiotic bacterium that infects a wide range of insect species. Wolbachia is known as an example of a parasite that manipulates the sex of its host's progeny. Infection of Ostrinia moths by Wolbachia causes the production of all-female progeny, however, the mechanism of how Wolbachia accomplishes this male-specific killing is unknown. Here we show for the first time that Wolbachia targets the host masculinizing gene of Ostrinia to accomplish male-killing. We found that Wolbachia-infected O. furnacalis embryos do not express the male-specific splice variant of doublesex, a gene which acts at the downstream end of the sex differentiation cascade, throughout embryonic development. Transcriptome analysis revealed that Wolbachia infection markedly reduces the mRNA level of Masc, a gene that encodes a protein required for both masculinization and dosage compensation in the silkworm Bombyx mori. Detailed bioinformatic analysis also elucidated that dosage compensation of Z-linked genes fails in Wolbachia-infected O. furnacalis embryos, a phenomenon that is extremely similar to that observed in Masc mRNA-depleted male embryos of B. mori. Finally, injection of in vitro transcribed Masc cRNA into Wolbachia-infected embryos rescued male progeny. Our results show that Wolbachia-induced male-killing is caused by a failure of dosage compensation via repression of the host masculinizing gene. Our study also shows a novel strategy by which a pathogen hijacks the host sex determination cascade. |
| Databáze: | Directory of Open Access Journals |
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