Structural mapping of the dihydrofolate reductase amplicon in mosquito cells resistant to methotrexate

Conditions facilitating infection of mosquito cell lines with Wolbachia, an obligate intracellular bacterium

Factors that influence establishment of Wolbachia, an obligate intracellular bacterium, in novel insect hosts or uninfected insect cell lines are poorly understood. Infectivity of Wolbachia strain wStr was correlated with flow cytometric profiles to define optimal conditions for harvesting an infectious inoculum. Wolbachia recovered from the cell culture supernatant after gentle pipetting of infected cells represented about 1% of the total bacterial population and were more infectious than Wolbachia that remained associated with intact cells and/or membranes after low-speed centrifugation. Optimal establishment of a robust infection in naïve cells required 6 d, at a ratio of 80 to 160 bacteria per cell. Among Aedes albopictus mosquito cell lines, an aneuploid line with a 4n + 1 karyotype was more susceptible to infection than diploid lines. These findings contribute to the in vitro manipulation of Wolbachia, illustrate some of the many factors that influence infectivity, and identify areas for future investigation.

Sequence of a mosquito ribonucleotide reductase cDNA and evidence for gene amplification in hydroxyurea-resistant cells

Ribonucleotide reductase is essential for production of the deoxyribonucleotide substrates required for DNA synthesis in all eukaryotic cells. The full-length cDNA encoding a mosquito ribonucleotide reductase R2 subunit was obtained from Aedes albopictus cells using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based approach. The cDNA contained 1197 nucleotides, and encoded a 398 amino acid R2 protein. Overall, mosquito R2 shared approximately 70% amino acid sequence identity with R2 proteins from vertebrates, but conservation at the N-terminus of the protein was relatively low. The sequence of R2 cDNA was identical in hydroxyurea-resistant mosquito cells and in wild-type cells, while the R2 gene copy number was increased ten to twentyfold in resistant cells.

Early-replicating DNA from mosquito cells is associated with a distinct EcoRI fragment

In an effort to define an origin of bi-directional DNA replication (OBR) in mosquito genomic DNA, we applied methods that take advantage of characteristic features of single-stranded DNA to methotrexate-resistant Aedes albopictus cells. The Mtx-5011-256 cells contained approximately 1000 copies of a 200 kb amplicon containing the dihydrofolate reductase locus, which likely contained one or more replication origins. When Mtx-5011-256 cells were synchronized by treatment with hydroxyurea, released into the S phase of the cell cycle, and labeled in vivo with tritiated DNA precursors, a 1.9 kb EcoRI fragment was preferentially labeled in EcoRI-digested genomic DNA. Similarly, we detected a 1.9 kb EcoRI fragment in DNA from wild type cells after cell cycle synchronization and in vivo labeling. In a complementary method, unlabeled single-stranded DNA was isolated from Mtx-5011-256 cells, labeled in vitro, and hybridized to EcoRI-digested genomic DNA from mosquito cells. The labeled probe hybridized preferentially to a 1.9 kb fragment. Finally, a 1.9 kb EcoRI fragment was detected when nascent DNA was recovered from unsynchronized cells, made double-stranded by in vitro labeling, and digested with EcoRI. Taken together, these results suggest that in Aedes albopictus mosquito cells, many replication origins used at different times during S are flanked by EcoRI sites that define a 1.9 kb fragment, which has become more abundant in Mtx-5011-256 cells because it occurs in the dhfr amplicon. Tentative mapping of this origin to amplicon DNA remains ambiguous, further suggesting that a repeated sequence element occurs at or near the origin of replication.

The mosquito dihydrofolate reductase amplicon contains a truncated synaptic vesicle protein gene

When maintained under continuous selection with the folate inhibitor, methotrexate, cultured Aedes albopicfus mosquito cells amplify an 200 kb region of DNA containing the dihydrofolate reductase gene. To determine whether the amplicon contained additional coding regions, Southern blots of cosmid clones containing amplicon DNA were probed separately with reverse-transcribed mRNA from methotrexate-sensitive and methotrexate-resistant cells. Cosmid pWED118 contained five EcoRI fragments (A, B, C, F, G) ranging in size from 2 to 5 kb that hybridized with cDNA from resistant cells. Of these, fragments B and F also hybridized to probe representing mRNA from sensitive cells, and all but fragment G hybridized to repetitive DNA from wild-type cells. Fragment G, which appeared to encode a low copy number gene in wild-type cells that subsequently became part of the dihydrofolate reductase amplicon in methotrexate-resistant cells, hybridized strongly to a 7 kb band and more weakly to bands measuring 9 and 3 kb on Northern blots containing RNA from resistant cells. Fragment G contained a 1203 bp open reading frame, encoding 401 amino acids homologous to synaptic vesicle protein SV2, a member of a transmembrane transporter family expressed in neural and endocrine cells. The region of homology included the six N-terminal transmembrane domains, an internal cytoplasmic loop, a seventh transmembrane domain, and most of an intravesicular loop. This partial sequence, which appears to correspond to a truncated gene generated during formation of the dihydrofolate reductase amplicon, provides a useful basis for more extensive characterization of an important gene family that may be the target of novel insecticides.

Similarities to a LINE element shared by Anopheline and Culicine mosquitos map to the distal end of dihydrofolate reductase amplicons in Aedes albopictus mosquito cells

To extend our understanding of amplicon structure in methotrexate-resistant Mtx-5011-256 Aedes albopictus mosquito cells, we examined a series of cosmids containing genomic DNA corresponding to the unique 3'-end of the Type 1 dihydrofolate reductase amplicon. Cosmid pWED118 contained five EcoRI fragments ranging from 2 to 5 kb (A, B, C, F, G) that hybridized to cDNA from methotrexate-resistant cells. Of these, fragments B and F hybridized weakly to first-strand cDNA from sensitive cells and shared considerable sequence identity. Fragment G occurred twice in the map of pWED118; one copy mapped within a 10 kb BssHII core fragment from the Type I amplicon and a second copy mapped downstream in the 48 kb BssHII core fragment. Hybridization signals among fragments contained in overlapping cosmids suggested that a branch point defining two or more subtypes of the Type I amplicon occurs within or near the 10 kb BssHII genomic DNA fragment. A 1.8 kb sequence common to fragments B and F included an approximately 0.4 kb region that shared sequence similarities with a LINE element from Aedes aegypti and with a repeated sequence from Anopheles gambiae. In addition, these elements shared amino acid similarity to a reverse transcriptase from the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans. Shared sequence between Aedes and Anopheles elements supports the hypothesis that an ancestral LINE-like element was active in mosquito genomes prior to the divergence of the subfamilies Culicinae and Anophelinae. The presence of homologies to LINE-like elements near a branch point in the dihydrofolate reductase amplicon is consistent with a possible role of repeated sequences in amplicon shortening.