TY - JOUR
T1 - The phage gene wmk is a candidate for male killing by a bacterial endosymbiont
AU - Perlmutter, Jessamyn I.
AU - Bordenstein, Sarah R.
AU - Unckless, Robert L.
AU - LePage, Daniel P.
AU - Metcalf, Jason A.
AU - Hill, Tom
AU - Martinez, Julien
AU - Jiggins, Francis M.
AU - Bordenstein, Seth R.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) R21AI133522, R21 HD086833, NIH R01 AI132581, Vanderbilt Microbiome Initiative, and National Science Foundation 1456778 to Seth R. B. and a Vanderbilt University Teaching Assistantship for J.I.P. Imaging was performed in part through the use of the Vanderbilt Cell Imaging Shared Resource (supported by NIH grants CA68485, DK20593, DK58404, DK59637 and EY08126) and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) Scholarships S000006322 and S000006432. This project was supported by a Max Kade Postdoctoral Fellowship to T.H. and NIH grant 4R00GM114714- 02 to R.L.U. We would like to thank the Southwest Research Station for allowing fly collection. F.M.J. and J.M. were supported by European Research Council grant 281668 Drosophila Infection and Wellcome Trust Grant WT094664MA. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2019 Perlmutter et al.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Wolbachia are the most widespread maternally-transmitted bacteria in the animal kingdom. Their global spread in arthropods and varied impacts on animal physiology, evolution, and vector control are in part due to parasitic drive systems that enhance the fitness of infected females, the transmitting sex of Wolbachia. Male killing is one common drive mechanism wherein the sons of infected females are selectively killed. Despite decades of research, the gene(s) underlying Wolbachia-induced male killing remain unknown. Here using comparative genomic, transgenic, and cytological approaches in fruit flies, we identify a candidate gene in the eukaryotic association module of Wolbachia prophage WO, termed WO-mediated killing (wmk), which transgenically causes male-specific lethality during early embryogenesis and cytological defects typical of the pathology of male killing. The discovery of wmk establishes new hypotheses for the potential role of phage genes in sex-specific lethality, including the control of arthropod pests and vectors.
AB - Wolbachia are the most widespread maternally-transmitted bacteria in the animal kingdom. Their global spread in arthropods and varied impacts on animal physiology, evolution, and vector control are in part due to parasitic drive systems that enhance the fitness of infected females, the transmitting sex of Wolbachia. Male killing is one common drive mechanism wherein the sons of infected females are selectively killed. Despite decades of research, the gene(s) underlying Wolbachia-induced male killing remain unknown. Here using comparative genomic, transgenic, and cytological approaches in fruit flies, we identify a candidate gene in the eukaryotic association module of Wolbachia prophage WO, termed WO-mediated killing (wmk), which transgenically causes male-specific lethality during early embryogenesis and cytological defects typical of the pathology of male killing. The discovery of wmk establishes new hypotheses for the potential role of phage genes in sex-specific lethality, including the control of arthropod pests and vectors.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.ppat.1007936
DO - 10.1371/journal.ppat.1007936
M3 - Article
C2 - 31504075
AN - SCOPUS:85072021721
SN - 1553-7366
VL - 15
JO - PLoS pathogens
JF - PLoS pathogens
IS - 9
M1 - e1007936
ER -