Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2732-7540
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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9521-0558
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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8208-0929
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Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2012
College/Unit
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department/Program/Center
Biology
Abstract
Ancient endosymbionts have been associated with extreme genome structural stability with little differentiation in gene inventory between sister species. Tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae) harbor an obligate endosymbiont, Wigglesworthia, which has coevolved with the Glossina radiation. We report on the ~720-kb Wigglesworthia genome and its associated plasmid from Glossina morsitans morsitans and compare them to those of the symbiont from Glossina brevipalpis. While there was overall high synteny between the two genomes, a large inversion was noted. Furthermore, symbiont transcriptional analyses demonstrated host tissue and development-specific gene expression supporting robust transcriptional regulation in Wigglesworthia, an unprecedented observation in other obligate mutualist endosymbionts. Expression and immunohistochemistry confirmed the role of flagella during the vertical transmission process from mother to intrauterine progeny. The expression of nutrient provisioning genes (thiC and hemH) suggests that Wigglesworthia may function in dietary supplementation tailored toward host development. Furthermore, despite extensive conservation, unique genes were identified within both symbiont genomes that may result in distinct metabolomes impacting host physiology. One of these differences involves the chorismate, phenylalanine, and folate biosynthetic pathways, which are uniquely present in Wigglesworthia morsitans. Interestingly, African trypanosomes are auxotrophs for phenylalanine and folate and salvage both exogenously. It is possible that W. morsitans contributes to the higher parasite susceptibility of its host species.
Digital Commons Citation
Rio, Rita V M; Symula, Rebecca E.; Wang, Jinhwen; Lohs, Claudia; Wu, Yi-neng; Snyder, Anna K.; Bjornson, Robert D.; Oshima, Kenshiro; Biehl, Bryan S.; Perna, Nicole T.; Hattori, Masahira; and Aksoy, Serap, "Insight into the Transmission Biology and Species-Specific Functional Capabilities of Tsetse (Diptera: Glossinidae) Obligate Symbiont Wigglesworthia" (2012). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 2705.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/2705
Source Citation
Rio, R. V. M., Symula, R. E., Wang, J., Lohs, C., Wu, Y., Snyder, A. K., … Aksoy, S. (2012). Insight into the Transmission Biology and Species-Specific Functional Capabilities of Tsetse (Diptera: Glossinidae) Obligate Symbiont Wigglesworthia. mBio, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.00240-11
Comments
© 2012 Rio et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.