Analysis of the Wolbachia endosymbiont effects on their Drosophila melanogaster host -

Abstract

Wolbachia is a known endosymbiont of many insects including the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the disease vectors Culex pipiens and Aedes albopictus. It is present in the gonads and induces cytoplasmic incompatibility; a partial one in Drosophila and a complete one in mosquitoes. Therefore, understanding how this microbe manipulates its host to induce this reproductive alteration would be of great importance. It would indeed fill in a gap in knowledge present in the field pertaining to the nature of this interaction: is Wolbachia perceived as a parasite by the host? Does its presence impose some sort selective advantage or disadvantage on its host's fitness? Moreover, deciphering the sequence of events leading to cytoplasmic incompatibility would indeed open new possibilities for biological control of some disease vectors, of which an example of would be the introduction of infected males to an environment of Wolbachia free females, leading to cytoplasmic incompatibility and thus population control. In this study we aim to understand some of the mechanisms employed by Wolbachia to manipulate its natural host Drosophila melanogaster, and how in turn does this fly counteract and respond to the bacterium studying the immune responses activated by Drosophila specifically. In this study, we use the genetic tools available for Drosophila in order to tackle the interactions taking place at the molecular levels between the endosymbiont and its host. We try to address how the bacterium is manipulating its host at the molecular and gene levels, and in turn check how the host is responding to control Wolbachia.