Nighttime activities and peripheral clock oscillations depend on Wolbachia endosymbionts in flies.

ABSTRACT: Wolbachia are ubiquitous bacterial endosymbionts of arthropods and affect host gene expression. Although Wolbachia infections were suggested to modulate sleep in flies, their influence on the circadian clock remained obscure. Here, we screened bacterial symbionts in a laboratory Drosophila melanogaster colony, and observed widespread infections of wMel strain Wolbachia. We established a Wolbachia-free strain from a clock gene reporter strain, period-luciferase (per-luc). Temperature (19-29 °C)-compensated free-running periods were detected regardless of infections which may reflect the lack of wMel infections in central circadian pacemaker neurons. However, locomotor activity levels during the night or subjective night were significantly amplified in uninfected flies. Moreover, the behavio

SUBMITTER: Morioka E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6194088 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature