The Endosymbiotic Bacterium Wolbachia Selectively Kills Male Hosts by Targeting the Masculinizing Gene.

ABSTRACT: 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

SUBMITTER: Fukui T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4501725 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature