Somatic stem cell niche tropism in Wolbachia

Wolbachia are intracellular bacteria found in the reproductive tissue of all major groups of arthropods. They are transmitted vertically from the female hosts to their offspring, in a pattern analogous to mitochondria inheritance. But Wolbachia phylogeny does not parallel that of the host, indicating that horizontal infectious transmission must also occur. Insect parasitoids are considered the most likely vectors, but the mechanism for horizontal transfer is largely unknown. Here we show that newly introduced Wolbachia cross several tissues and infect the germline of the adult Drosophila melanogaster female. Through investigation of bacterial migration patterns during the course of infection, we found that Wolbachia reach the germline through the somatic stem cell niche in the D. melanogaster germarium. In addition, our data suggest that Wolbachia are highly abundant in the somatic stem cell niche of long-term infected hosts, implying that this location may also contribute to efficient vertical transmission. This is, to our knowledge, the first report of an intracellular parasite displaying tropism for a stem cell niche.     

Molecular Identification of a Wolbachia endosymbiont in Trichogramma dendrolimi

Wolbachia is a common and widespread group of bacteria found in arthropods. These bacteria have evolved various mechanisms for manipulating reproduction of their host. The presence of Wolbachia in a lab strain of the arrhenotokous species Trichogramma dendrolimi was observed by the amplification and sequencing of part of the wsp gene. Aligning the resulting sequences with already published ones, the phylogenetic relationships between Wolbachia found in Trichogramma dendrolimi and in other Trichogramma wasps was established, and the phylogenetic relationships of Wolbachia in Trichogramma were not congruent with their hosts Trichogramma. Some factors contributing to this uncongruence are discussed here.     

灰飞虱Wolbachia群体生物学的遗传特性研究

Ｗｏｌｂａｃｈｉａ是存在于多种昆虫生殖器官的一类共生菌,它可能在宿 主群体中引起细菌质不亲和性而给宿 主带来生殖优势。对灰飞虱体内的Ｗｏｌｂａｃｈｉａｆｊｔｆｄｇｐｗ,ｖ ｇｍ ｐｇｃｆｍｗ ｑｎｎｋｕｄｙｊｒ ｄｏ ｎｕｉ     

The wMel Wolbachia strain blocks dengue and invades caged Aedes aegypti populations

Dengue fever is the most important mosquito-borne viral disease of humans with more than 50 million cases estimated annually in more than 100 countries. Disturbingly, the geographic range of dengue is currently expanding and the severity of outbreaks is increasing. Control options for dengue are very limited and currently focus on reducing population abundance of the major mosquito vector, Aedes aegypti. These strategies are failing to reduce dengue incidence in tropical communities and there is an urgent need for effective alternatives. It has been proposed that endosymbiotic bacterial Wolbachia infections of insects might be used in novel strategies for dengue control. For example, the wMelPop-CLA Wolbachia strain reduces the lifespan of adult A. aegypti mosquitoes in stably transinfected lines. This life-shortening phenotype was predicted to reduce the potential for dengue transmission. The recent discovery that several Wolbachia infections, including wMelPop-CLA, can also directly influence the susceptibility of insects to infection with a range of insect and human pathogens has markedly changed the potential for Wolbachia infections to control human diseases. Here we describe the successful transinfection of A. aegypti with the avirulent wMel strain of Wolbachia, which induces the reproductive phenotype cytoplasmic incompatibility with minimal apparent fitness costs and high maternal transmission, providing optimal phenotypic effects for invasion. Under semi-field conditions, the wMel strain increased from an initial starting frequency of 0.65 to near fixation within a few generations, invading A. aegypti populations at an accelerated rate relative to trials with the wMelPop-CLA strain. We also show that wMel and wMelPop-CLA strains block transmission of dengue serotype 2 (DENV-2) in A. aegypti, forming the basis of a practical approach to dengue suppression.     

Isolation and characterization of a potential transposable element from Wolbachia

Wolbachia are a group of Rickettsia-like bacteria which parasitize the cells of a wide range of anthropoid. These microorganisms are associated with the reproductive and developmental abnormalities io their hosts. To study the molecular mechanism underlying such phenomena, we analyzed the genomic difference between Wolbachia with different cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) phenotype using representational difference analysis method. A potential transposable element, which exists in the strong CI-inducing strain wRi, was isolated. This element was designated as Wolbachia insertion sequence element (WISE).     

Wolbachia variability and host effects on crossing type in Culex mosquitoes

Wolbachia is a common maternally inherited bacterial symbiont able to induce crossing sterilities known as cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) in insects. Wolbachia-modified sperm are unable to complete fertilization of uninfected ova, but a rescue function allows infected eggs to develop normally. By providing a reproductive advantage to infected females, Wolbachia can rapidly invade uninfected populations, and this could provide a mechanism for driving transgenes through pest populations. CI can also occur between Wolbachia-infected populations and is usually associated with the presence of different Wolbachia strains. In the Culex pipiens mosquito group (including the filariasis vector C. quinquefasciatus) a very unusual degree of complexity of Wolbachia-induced crossing-types has been reported, with partial or complete CI that can be unidirectional or bidirectional, yet no Wolbachia strain variation was found. Here we show variation between incompatible Culex strains in two Wolbachia ankyrin repeat-encoding genes associated with a prophage region, one of which is sex-specifically expressed in some strains, and also a direct effect of the host nuclear genome on CI rescue.     

杨万里的儿女姻亲考述

杨万里生四子五女，一子早夭。本文对其儿女生平及其姻亲状况一一作出考述，以就正于通识大家。     

Mammalian sex ratios and variation in costs of rearing sons and daughters

In red deer, the sex ratio of calves at birth (calculated as the proportion of calves born that are male) increases with the dominance rank of the mother, whereas opposite trends exist in several populations of macaques and baboons. Here we show that the subsequent survival and reproductive success of subordinate female red deer is depressed more by rearing sons than by rearing daughters, whereas the subsequent fitness of dominant females is unaffected by the sex of their present offspring. By contrast, among subordinate female macaques, the rearing of daughters has greater costs to the mother's subsequent fitness than does the rearing of sons, although again, no difference in the costs of rearing sons and daughters is found among dominant mothers. These findings indicate that both differences in the relative fitness of sons and daughters and differences in the relative costs of rearing male and female offspring can favour variation in the sex ratio.     

Wolbachia 在中国稻田飞虱中的感染和传播

用ＰＣＲ方法检测了采集于不同地域的稻田飞虱共生菌Ｗｏｌｂａｃｈｉａ的感染,发现灰飞虱Ｌａｏｄｅｌｐｈａｘ ｓｔｒｉａｔｅｌｌｕｓ,褐飞虱Ｎｉｌｅｐａｒｖａｔａ ｌｕｇｅｎｓ,白背飞虱Ｓｏｇａｔｅｌｌａ ｆｕｒｃｉｆｅｒａ 为Ｗｏｌｂａｃｈｉａ所感染。克隆了编码Ｗｏｌｂａｃｈｉａ外膜蛋白质的ｗｓｐ基因并进行了序列测定,对ｗｓｐ的ＲＦＬＰ分析证实了这些飞虱为单一Ｗｏｌｂａｃｈｉａ感染,还发现一种能同时     

Wolbachia-induced incompatibility precedes other hybrid incompatibilities in Nasonia

Wolbachia are cytoplasmically inherited bacteria that cause a number of reproductive alterations in insects, including cytoplasmic incompatibility, an incompatibility between sperm and egg that results in loss of sperm chromosomes following fertilization. Wolbachia are estimated to infect 15-20% of all insect species, and also are common in arachnids, isopods and nematodes. Therefore, Wolbachia-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility could be an important factor promoting rapid speciation in invertebrates, although this contention is controversial. Here we show that high levels of bidirectional cytoplasmic incompatibility between two closely related species of insects (the parasitic wasps Nasonia giraulti and Nasonia longicornis) preceded the evolution of other postmating reproductive barriers. The presence of Wolbachia severely reduces the frequency of hybrid offspring in interspecies crosses. However, antibiotic curing of the insects results in production of hybrids. Furthermore, F1 and F2 hybrids are completely viable and fertile, indicating the absence of F1 and F2 hybrid breakdown. Partial interspecific sexual isolation occurs, yet it is asymmetric and incomplete. Our results indicate that Wolbachia-induced reproductive isolation occurred in the early stages of speciation in this system, before the evolution of other postmating isolating mechanisms (for example, hybrid inviability and hybrid sterility).     

A host parasite interaction rescues Drosophila oogenesis defects

The cytoplasmically inherited bacterium Wolbachia pipientis is a widespread parasite of arthropods that manipulates the reproductive biology of its hosts, often to their detriment, in order to foster its own transmission through egg cytoplasm. Here we report that infection by Wolbachia restores fertility to Drosophila melanogaster mutant females prevented from making eggs by protein-coding lesions in Sex-lethal (Sxl), the master regulator of sex determination. Suppression of sterility by Wolbachia discriminates markedly among similar germline-specific Sxl alleles, and is not observed for mutations in other genes that produce similar 'tumorous ovary' phenotypes, including one that blocks Sxl germline expression. This allele and gene specificity indicates that suppression probably results from a specific interaction with Sxl protein, rather than from a bypass of the normal germline requirement for this developmental regulator or from an effect on Sxl expression. The Sxl-Wolbachia interaction provides a rare opportunity to explore host-parasite relationships at the molecular level in a model insect. Furthermore, demonstration that a parasite infection can counteract the deleterious effects of mutations in host genes illustrates how hosts might become dependent on parasites.     

Cloning and characterization of a gene encoding phage-related tail protein (PrTP) of endosymbiont Wolbachia

Wolbachia is an obligatory, maternally inherited intracellular bacterium, known to infect a wide range of arthropods. It has been implicated in causing cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), parthenogenesis, the feminization of genetic males and male-killing in different hosts. However, the molecular mechanisms by which this fastidious bacterium causes these reproductive abnormalities have not yet been determined. In this study, we report on the cloning and characterization of the gene encoding phage-related tail protein (PrTP) from Wolbachia in Drosophila melanogaster CantonS (wMelCS) and from Wolbachia in Drosophila melanogaster yw67c23 (wMel) by representational difference analysis (RDA) and ligation-mediated PCR (LM-PCR). The functionality of a bipartite nuclear localization signal sequence (NLS) of the gene was also successfully tested in Drosophila S2 cells. PrTP expression in various strains of Wolbachia was investigated. Our results suggest that PrTP may not induce CI directly. However, the existence of prtp provided direct evidence of phage-mediated horizontal gene transfer (HGT) that might play an important role in a variety of reproductive abnormalities of Wolbachia.     

Wolbachia在灰飞虱体内的分布

灰飞虱（Laodelphax striatellus)能传播水稻条纹叶枯病,是我国主要的水稻害虫,有些灰飞虱体内含有细胞内共生菌－Wolbachia。Wolbachia是一种细胞质遗传的细胞内共生菌,这类细菌改变了宿主的生殖行为,引起细胞质不相容（CI）,雌性化及孤雌生殖等现象,导致带有Wolbachia的宿主具有生殖优势。采用PCR和Western杂交的方法分析Wolbachia的灰飞虱体内不同组织的分布状况,发现灰飞虱体内Wolbachia除存在于生殖组织外,还广泛分布在头、胸、腹、唾液腺、消化道等非生殖组织中。这种广泛的分布状态说明Wolbachia是在昆虫体内引入、表达与传播外源基因的良好媒介。     

稠油油藏中水平井试井分析新方法

本文研完了稠油油藏水平井试井中幂律流体的流动规律。利用弹性压力波传播理论,导出了试井计算近似式。并与其它解法进行比较,符合得较好。按该理论方法还可以导出垂直井、压裂井的试井计算式。     

Prion disease: horizontal prion transmission in mule deer

Epidemics of contagious prion diseases can be perpetuated by horizontal (animal to animal) and maternal (dam to offspring, before or after birth) transmission, but the relative importance of each mechanism is unclear. Here we compare the incidence of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in captive mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) that is attributable to horizontal or maternal transmission. We find that horizontal transmission is remarkably efficient, producing a high incidence of disease (89%) in a cohort of deer in which maternal transmission was improbable. Our results indicate that horizontal transmission is likely to be important in sustaining CWD epidemics.     

灰飞虱共生菌Wolbachia引起的细胞质不亲和性

对我国６个地区和日本３个地区灰飞虱的Ｗｏｌｂａｈｉａ感染率，用ＰＣＲ技术进行了检测，结果表明中国的辽宁、北京、上海和云南的灰飞虱的Ｗｏｌｂａｃｈｉａ感染率均接近１００％；四川为５９．６％；而宁夏为０。各地区灰飞虱间的交配实验证明了在Ｗｏｌｂａｃｈｉａ引起的细胞质不亲和现象的存在，Ｗｏｌｂａｃｈｉａ１６ＳｒＤＮＡ的部分测序分析表明，上海、云南和日本出云的灰飞虱发的同为Ｗｏｌｂａｃｈｉａ ｐｉｐｉｅｎ     

16S rRNA基因的PCR-DGGE技术分析茶尺蠖幼虫肠道细菌种群结构及多样性

利用16S rRNA的PCR-DGGE（变性梯度凝胶电泳）技术分析研究了茶尺蠖肠道内细菌的种类与多样性.通过对16S rRNA序列分析,从茶尺蠖野外种群肠适中鉴定了11种细菌,这些细菌分属于沃尔巴克氏菌（Wolbachia）、肠杆菌属（Enterobacter）、沙雷氏菌属（Serratia）、梭菌属（Clostridium）、肠球菌属（Enterococcus）、暂定类群EO1;其中以肠杆菌、沃尔巴克氏菌、沙雷氏菌属最为常见.另外,也鉴定了一种茶树叶绿体上的16SrRNA基因.茶尺蠖幼虫体内的共生菌多样性分析结果,将会为害虫综合治理提供一条全新的探索途径.     

Successful establishment of Wolbachia in Aedes populations to suppress dengue transmission

Genetic manipulations of insect populations for pest control have been advocated for some time, but there are few cases where manipulated individuals have been released in the field and no cases where they have successfully invaded target populations. Population transformation using the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia is particularly attractive because this maternally-inherited agent provides a powerful mechanism to invade natural populations through cytoplasmic incompatibility. When Wolbachia are introduced into mosquitoes, they interfere with pathogen transmission and influence key life history traits such as lifespan. Here we describe how the wMel Wolbachia infection, introduced into the dengue vector Aedes aegypti from Drosophila melanogaster, successfully invaded two natural A. aegypti populations in Australia, reaching near-fixation in a few months following releases of wMel-infected A. aegypti adults. Models with plausible parameter values indicate that Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes suffered relatively small fitness costs, leading to an unstable equilibrium frequency <30% that must be exceeded for invasion. These findings demonstrate that Wolbachia-based strategies can be deployed as a practical approach to dengue suppression with potential for area-wide implementation.     

昆虫种群流行病的相对聚集性指标与抽样式研究

提出适用于昆虫疾病传播方式及其强度分析的相对聚集性指标，它们是发病种群聚集度与复合种群聚集度之比．相对聚集度大，则发病中心明显，疾病水平传播的效应就较强；相对聚集度小，则发病个体分布稀疏，疾病的垂直传播和环境传播效应较为突出．同时，给出了用于昆虫种群流行病田间调查的理论抽样量公式和序贯抽样公式．     

Egg investment is influenced by male attractiveness in the mallard

Why females prefer to copulate with particular males is a contentious issue. Attention is currently focused on whether females choose males on the basis of their genetic quality, in order to produce more viable offspring. Support for this hypothesis in birds has come from studies showing that preferred males tend to father offspring of better condition or with increased survivorship. Before attributing greater offspring viability to a male's heritable genetic quality, however, it is important to discount effects arising from confounding sources, including maternal effects. This has generally been addressed by comparing offspring viability from two different breeding attempts by the same female: one when offspring are sired by a preferred male, and one when offspring are sired by a less preferred male. However, here we show that individual female mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) lay larger eggs after copulating with preferred males and smaller eggs after copulating with less preferred males. As a result, females produced offspring of better body condition when paired with preferred males. After controlling for these differences in maternal investment, we found no effect of paternity on offspring condition. This shows that differences between half-sibs cannot always be attributed to paternal or maternal genetic effects.