Microsporidian Nosema bombycis hijacks host vitellogenin and restructures ovariole cells for transovarial transmission.

ABSTRACT: Microsporidia are a group of obligate intracellular parasites that infect almost all animals, causing serious human diseases and major economic losses to the farming industry. Nosema bombycis is a typical microsporidium that infects multiple lepidopteran insects via fecal-oral and transovarial transmission (TOT); however, the underlying TOT processes and mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we characterized the TOT process and identified key factors enabling N. bombycis to invade the ovariole and oocyte of silkworm Bombyx mori. We found that the parasites commenced with TOT at the early pupal stage when ovarioles penetrated the ovary wall and were exposed to the hemolymph. Subsequently, the parasites in hemolymph and hemolymph cells firstly infiltrated the ovariole sheath, from where they inva

SUBMITTER: Wang C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10729982 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature