Wenzel M, Aquadro CF.
Wolbachia genetically interacts with the
bag of marbles germline stem cell gene in male
D. melanogaster.
MICROPUBLICATION BIOLOGY 2023;
2023:10.17912/micropub.biology.000845. [PMID:
37416893 PMCID:
PMC10321140 DOI:
10.17912/micropub.biology.000845]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 05/20/2023] [Accepted: 05/23/2023] [Indexed: 07/08/2023]
Abstract
The bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia manipulates reproduction of its arthropod hosts to promote its own maternal vertical transmission. In female D. melanogaster , Wolbachia has been shown to genetically interact with three key reproductive genes ( bag of marbles ( bam ) , Sex-lethal, and mei-P26) , as it rescues the reduced female fertility or fecundity phenotype seen in partial loss-of-function mutants of these genes . Here, we show that Wolbachia also partially rescues male fertility in D. melanogaster carrying a new, largely sterile bam allele when in a bam null genetic background. This finding shows that the molecular mechanism of Wolbachia 's influence on its hosts' reproduction involves interaction with genes in males as well as females, at least in D. melanogaster .
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