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Cinege G, Fodor K, Magyar LB, Lipinszki Z, Hultmark D, Andó I. Cellular Immunity of Drosophila willistoni Reveals Novel Complexity in Insect Anti-Parasitoid Defense. Cells 2024; 13:593. [PMID: 38607032 PMCID: PMC11011451 DOI: 10.3390/cells13070593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2024] [Revised: 03/25/2024] [Accepted: 03/27/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Coevolution of hosts and their parasites has shaped heterogeneity of effector hemocyte types, providing immune defense reactions with variable effectiveness. In this work, we characterize hemocytes of Drosophila willistoni, a species that has evolved a cellular immune system with extensive variation and a high degree of plasticity. Monoclonal antibodies were raised and used in indirect immunofluorescence experiments to characterize hemocyte subpopulations, follow their functional features and differentiation. Pagocytosis and parasitization assays were used to determine the functional characteristics of hemocyte types. Samples were visualized using confocal and epifluorescence microscopy. We identified a new multinucleated giant hemocyte (MGH) type, which differentiates in the course of the cellular immune response to parasitoids. These cells differentiate in the circulation through nuclear division and cell fusion, and can also be derived from the central hematopoietic organ, the lymph gland. They have a binary function as they take up bacteria by phagocytosis and are involved in the encapsulation and elimination of the parasitoid. Here, we show that, in response to large foreign particles, such as parasitoids, MGHs differentiate, have a binary function and contribute to a highly effective cellular immune response, similar to the foreign body giant cells of vertebrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gyöngyi Cinege
- Innate Immunity Group, Institute of Genetics, HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, 6726 Szeged, Hungary; (K.F.); (L.B.M.); (I.A.)
| | - Kinga Fodor
- Innate Immunity Group, Institute of Genetics, HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, 6726 Szeged, Hungary; (K.F.); (L.B.M.); (I.A.)
| | - Lilla B. Magyar
- Innate Immunity Group, Institute of Genetics, HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, 6726 Szeged, Hungary; (K.F.); (L.B.M.); (I.A.)
- Doctoral School of Biology, University of Szeged, 6720 Szeged, Hungary
| | - Zoltán Lipinszki
- MTA SZBK Lendület Laboratory of Cell Cycle Regulation, Institute of Biochemistry, HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, 6726 Szeged, Hungary;
- National Laboratory for Biotechnology, Institute of Genetics, HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, 6726 Szeged, Hungary
| | - Dan Hultmark
- Department of Molecular Biology, Umea University, 901 87 Umea, Sweden;
| | - István Andó
- Innate Immunity Group, Institute of Genetics, HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, 6726 Szeged, Hungary; (K.F.); (L.B.M.); (I.A.)
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Ricchio J, Uno F, Carvalho AB. New Genes in the Drosophila Y Chromosome: Lessons from D. willistoni. Genes (Basel) 2021; 12:genes12111815. [PMID: 34828421 PMCID: PMC8623413 DOI: 10.3390/genes12111815] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2021] [Revised: 11/08/2021] [Accepted: 11/11/2021] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Y chromosomes play important roles in sex determination and male fertility. In several groups (e.g., mammals) there is strong evidence that they evolved through gene loss from a common X-Y ancestor, but in Drosophila the acquisition of new genes plays a major role. This conclusion came mostly from studies in two species. Here we report the identification of the 22 Y-linked genes in D. willistoni. They all fit the previously observed pattern of autosomal or X-linked testis-specific genes that duplicated to the Y. The ratio of gene gains to gene losses is ~25 in D. willistoni, confirming the prominent role of gene gains in the evolution of Drosophila Y chromosomes. We also found four large segmental duplications (ranging from 62 kb to 303 kb) from autosomal regions to the Y, containing ~58 genes. All but four of these duplicated genes became pseudogenes in the Y or disappeared. In the GK20609 gene the Y-linked copy remained functional, whereas its original autosomal copy degenerated, demonstrating how autosomal genes are transferred to the Y chromosome. Since the segmental duplication that carried GK20609 contained six other testis-specific genes, it seems that chance plays a significant role in the acquisition of new genes by the Drosophila Y chromosome.
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Abstract
Both the population and coevolutionary dynamics of hereditary male-lethal endosymbionts, found in a wide range of insect species, depend on host fitness and endosymbiont transmission rates. This paper reports on fitness effects and transmission rates in three lines of Drosophila willistoni infected with either male-lethal spiroplasmas or a spontaneous nonmale-lethal mutant. Overall fitness measures were reduced or unaffected by the infection; however, some infected females produced more offspring in early broods. Maternal transmission rates were high, but imperfect, and varied with a female's age, host line, and spiroplasma type. No evidence for paternal or horizontal transmission was found. If an altered temporal pattern of reproduction is not a factor in countering the loss of spiroplasma hosts through imperfect maternal transmission, persistence of this endoparasitism remains unexplained. Tolerance of the infection and ability to transmit bacteria varied with both host and spiroplasma line. Analysis of the interaction between the spontaneous nonmale-lethal mutant and its host suggests this symbiosis has undergone coevolution under laboratory culture.
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Mardiros XB, Park R, Clifton B, Grewal G, Khizar AK, Markow TA, Ranz JM, Civetta A. Postmating Reproductive isolation between strains of Drosophila willistoni. Fly (Austin) 2016; 10:162-71. [PMID: 27268100 PMCID: PMC5036932 DOI: 10.1080/19336934.2016.1197448] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Speciation can occur through the presence of reproductive isolation barriers that impede mating, restrict cross-fertilization, or render inviable/sterile hybrid progeny. The D. willistoni subgroup is ideally suited for studies of speciation, with examples of both allopatry and sympatry, a range of isolation barriers, and the availability of one species complete genome sequence to facilitate genetic studies of divergence. D. w. willistoni has the largest geographic distribution among members of the Drosophila willistoni subgroup, spanning from Argentina to the southern United States, including the Caribbean islands. A subspecies of D. w. willistoni, D. w. quechua, is geographically separated by the Andes mountain range and has evolved unidirectional sterility, in that only male offspring of D. w. quechua females × D. w. willistoni males are sterile. Whether D. w. willistoni flies residing east of the Andes belong to one or more D. willistoni subspecies remains unresolved. Here we perform fecundity assays and show that F1 hybrid males produced from crosses between different strains found in Central America, North America, and northern Caribbean islands are reproductively isolated from South American and southern Caribbean island strains as a result of unidirectional hybrid male sterility. Our results show the existence of a reproductive isolation barrier between the northern and southern strains and suggest a subdivision of the previously identified D. willistoni willistoni species into 2 new subspecies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xian B Mardiros
- a Department of Biology , University of Winnipeg , Winnipeg , Canada
| | - Ronni Park
- b Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology , University of California Irvine , Irvine , California , USA
| | - Bryan Clifton
- b Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology , University of California Irvine , Irvine , California , USA
| | - Gurman Grewal
- a Department of Biology , University of Winnipeg , Winnipeg , Canada
| | - Amina K Khizar
- a Department of Biology , University of Winnipeg , Winnipeg , Canada
| | - Therese A Markow
- c Division of Biological Sciences ; University of California , San Diego, La Jolla , California , USA
| | - José M Ranz
- b Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology , University of California Irvine , Irvine , California , USA
| | - Alberto Civetta
- a Department of Biology , University of Winnipeg , Winnipeg , Canada
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Abstract
Drosophila willistoni is a geographically widespread Neotropical species. The genome of strain Gd-H4-1 from Guadeloupe Island (Caribbean) was sequenced in 2007 as part of the 12 Drosophila Genomes Project. The assembled scaffolds were joined based on conserved linkage and assigned to polytene chromosomes based on a handful of genetic and physical markers. This paucity of markers was particularly striking in the metacentric chromosome II, comprised two similarly sized arms, IIL and IIR, traditionally considered homologous to Muller elements C and B, respectively. In this paper we present the cytological mapping of 22 new gene markers to increase the number of markers mapped by in situ hybridization and to test the assignment of scaffolds to the polytene chromosome II arms. For this purpose, we generated, by polymerase chain reaction amplification, one or two gene probes from each scaffold assigned to the chromosome II arms and mapped these probes to the Gd-H4-1 strain's polytene chromosomes by nonfluorescent in situ hybridization. Our findings show that chromosome arms IIL and IIR correspond to Muller elements B and C, respectively, directly contrasting the current homology assignments in D. willistoni and constituting a major reassignment of the scaffolds to chromosome II arms.
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Hodar C, Zuñiga A, Pulgar R, Travisany D, Chacon C, Pino M, Maass A, Cambiazo V. Comparative gene expression analysis of Dtg, a novel target gene of Dpp signaling pathway in the early Drosophila melanogaster embryo. Gene 2013; 535:210-7. [PMID: 24321690 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2013.11.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2013] [Revised: 10/30/2013] [Accepted: 11/14/2013] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
In the early Drosophila melanogaster embryo, Dpp, a secreted molecule that belongs to the TGF-β superfamily of growth factors, activates a set of downstream genes to subdivide the dorsal region into amnioserosa and dorsal epidermis. Here, we examined the expression pattern and transcriptional regulation of Dtg, a new target gene of Dpp signaling pathway that is required for proper amnioserosa differentiation. We showed that the expression of Dtg was controlled by Dpp and characterized a 524-bp enhancer that mediated expression in the dorsal midline, as well as, in the differentiated amnioserosa in transgenic reporter embryos. This enhancer contained a highly conserved region of 48-bp in which bioinformatic predictions and in vitro assays identified three Mad binding motifs. Mutational analysis revealed that these three motifs were necessary for proper expression of a reporter gene in transgenic embryos, suggesting that short and highly conserved genomic sequences may be indicative of functional regulatory regions in D. melanogaster genes. Dtg orthologs were not detected in basal lineages of Dipterans, which unlike D. melanogaster develop two extra-embryonic membranes, amnion and serosa, nevertheless Dtg orthologs were identified in the transcriptome of Musca domestica, in which dorsal ectoderm patterning leads to the formation of a single extra-embryonic membrane. These results suggest that Dtg was recruited as a new component of the network that controls dorsal ectoderm patterning in the lineage leading to higher Cyclorrhaphan flies, such as D. melanogaster and M. domestica.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Hodar
- Laboratorio de Bioinformática y Expresión Génica, INTA-Universidad de Chile, El Líbano 5524, Santiago, Chile; Fondap Center for Genome Regulation (CGR), Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Alejandro Zuñiga
- Laboratorio de Bioinformática y Expresión Génica, INTA-Universidad de Chile, El Líbano 5524, Santiago, Chile; Fondap Center for Genome Regulation (CGR), Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Rodrigo Pulgar
- Laboratorio de Bioinformática y Expresión Génica, INTA-Universidad de Chile, El Líbano 5524, Santiago, Chile; Fondap Center for Genome Regulation (CGR), Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Dante Travisany
- Laboratorio de Bioinformática y Matemática del Genoma, Center for Mathematical Modeling, FCFM-Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Fondap Center for Genome Regulation (CGR), Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Carlos Chacon
- Laboratorio de Bioinformática y Expresión Génica, INTA-Universidad de Chile, El Líbano 5524, Santiago, Chile
| | - Michael Pino
- Laboratorio de Bioinformática y Expresión Génica, INTA-Universidad de Chile, El Líbano 5524, Santiago, Chile
| | - Alejandro Maass
- Laboratorio de Bioinformática y Matemática del Genoma, Center for Mathematical Modeling, FCFM-Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Fondap Center for Genome Regulation (CGR), Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Department of Mathematical Engineering, FCFM-Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Verónica Cambiazo
- Laboratorio de Bioinformática y Expresión Génica, INTA-Universidad de Chile, El Líbano 5524, Santiago, Chile; Fondap Center for Genome Regulation (CGR), Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
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Abstract
Drosophila willistoni (Insecta, Diptera) is considered a paradigm for evolutionary studies. Their chromosomes are characterized by multiple paracentric inversions that make it hard to identify and describe chromosomal polymorphisms. In the present report we attempted to systematize the description of all the 50 inversions found in the last three decades, since we have been studying the chromosomes of several individuals of 30 different populations, including the one used in the genome sequencing project (Gd-H4-1). We present the photographic register of 11 arrangements in the left arm of the X chromosome (XL), eight in the right arm (XR), 10 in the left arm of chromosome II (IIL), eight in its right arm (IIR) and 13 in chromosome III. This information also includes their breakpoints on the reference photomap. A clear geographic difference was detected in XL and XR, with different fixed arrangements depending on the origin of the population studied. Through the comparison of all X arrangements it was possible to infer the putative ancestral arrangements, i.e., those related to all the remaining arrangements through the small number of inversions that occurred in the past, which we will call XL-A and XR-A. In the autosomes (IIL/IIR and III), fixed inversions were detected, but most are segregating in different frequencies along the geographical distribution of the D. willistoni populations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Vera Lúcia S. Valente
- Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
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