Wolbachia-induced expression of kenny gene in testes affects male fertility in Drosophila melanogaster

• 作者: Chen Liu Hua-Bao Zhang John C.Biwot Jun-Xue Qiao Xiao-Qiang Yu Yu-Feng Wang
• 来源期刊: 中国昆虫科学（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2020,（5）
• 所属期刊栏目: Special section:Endosmbionts and insect development
• 页码范围: 869-882
• 页数: 14页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1111/1744-7917.12730

摘要

Wolbachia are Gram-negative endosymbionts that are known to cause embryonic lethality when infected male insects mate with uninfected females or with females carrying a different strain of Wolbachia,a situation characterized as cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI).However,the mechanism of CI is not yet fully understood,although recent studies on Drosophila melanogaster have achieved great progress.Here,we found that Wolbachia infection caused changes in the expressions of several immunity-related genes,including significant upregulation ofkenny (key),in the testes ofD.melanogaster.Overexpression of key in fly testes led to a significant decrease in egg hatch rates when these flies mate with wild-type females.Wolbachia-infected females could rescue this embryonic lethality.Furthermore,in key overexpressing testes terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick-end labeling signal was significantly stronger than in the control testes,and the level of reactive oxygen species was significantly increased.Overexpression of key also resulted in alterations of some other immunity-related gene expressions,including the downregulation of Zn 72D.Knockdown of Zn 72D in fly testes also led to a significant decrease in egg hatch rates.These results suggest that Wolbachia might induce the defect in male host fertility by immunity-related pathways and thus cause an oxidative damage and cell death in male testes.