Dynamics of Wolbachia pipientis Gene Expression Across the Drosophila melanogaster Life Cycle.

ABSTRACT: Symbiotic interactions between microbes and their multicellular hosts have manifold biological consequences. To better understand how bacteria maintain symbiotic associations with animal hosts, we analyzed genome-wide gene expression for the endosymbiotic α-proteobacteria Wolbachia pipientis across the entire life cycle of Drosophila melanogaster. We found that the majority of Wolbachia genes are expressed stably across the D. melanogaster life cycle, but that 7.8% of Wolbachia genes exhibit robust stage- or sex-specific expression differences when studied in the whole-organism context. Differentially-expressed Wolbachia genes are typically up-regulated after Drosophila embryogenesis and include many bacterial membrane, secretion system, and ankyrin repeat-containing proteins. Sex-biased g

SUBMITTER: Gutzwiller F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4683655 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature