Unravelling the relationship between the tsetse fly and its obligate symbiont Wigglesworthia: transcriptomic and metabolomic landscapes reveal highly integrated physiological networks.

ABSTRACT: Insects with restricted diets rely on obligate microbes to fulfil nutritional requirements essential for biological function. Tsetse flies, vectors of African trypanosome parasites, feed exclusively on vertebrate blood and harbour the obligate endosymbiont Wigglesworthia glossinidia. Without Wigglesworthia, tsetse are unable to reproduce. These symbionts are sheltered within specialized cells (bacteriocytes) that form the midgut-associated bacteriome organ. To decipher the core functions of this symbiosis essential for tsetse's survival, we performed dual-RNA-seq analysis of the bacteriome, coupled with metabolomic analysis of bacteriome and haemolymph collected from normal and symbiont-cured (sterile) females. Bacteriocytes produce immune regulatory peptidoglycan recognition

SUBMITTER: Bing X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5489720 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature