Blind killing of both male and female Drosophila embryos by a natural variant of the endosymbiotic bacterium Spiroplasma poulsonii. (23rd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Masson, Florent; Calderon‐Copete, Sandra; Schüpfer, Fanny; Vigneron, Aurélien; Rommelaere, Samuel; Garcia‐Arraez, Mario G.; Paredes, Juan C.; Lemaitre, Bruno
• Is Part Of: Cellular microbiology. Volume 22:Number 5(2020)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2020-01-23
• Subjects: endosymbiosis -- male killing -- Spaid -- Spiroplasma; Microbiology -- Periodicals; Cytology -- Periodicals; Host-parasite relationships -- Periodicals; Microbiology -- Periodicals; Cells -- Periodicals; Microbiologie -- Périodiques; Microbiologie; Relation hôte-parasite; Cytologie; Cellule; Réponse cellulaire; Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); 579.05
• DOI: 10.1111/cmi.13156
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1462-5814

Abstract

Abstract: Spiroplasma poulsonii is a vertically transmitted endosymbiont of Drosophila melanogaster that causes male‐killing, that is the death of infected male embryos during embryogenesis. Here, we report a natural variant of S. poulsonii that is efficiently vertically transmitted yet does not selectively kill males, but kills rather a subset of all embryos regardless of their sex, a phenotype we call 'blind‐killing'. We show that the natural plasmid of S. poulsonii has an altered structure: Spaid, the gene coding for the male‐killing toxin, is deleted in the blind‐killing strain, confirming its function as a male‐killing factor. Then we further investigate several hypotheses that could explain the sex‐independent toxicity of this new strain on host embryos. As the second non‐male‐killing variant isolated from a male‐killing original population, this new strain raises questions on how male‐killing is maintained or lost in fly populations. As a natural knock‐out of Spaid, which is unachievable yet by genetic engineering approaches, this variant also represents a valuable tool for further investigations on the male‐killing mechanism.