The Bacterial Symbiont Wolbachia Induces Resistance to RNA Viral Infections in Drosophila melanogaster

By Luís Teixeira, Álvaro G A Ferreira, Michael Ashburner. PLoS Biology, 2008

1,188 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Wolbachia are vertically transmitted, obligatory intracellular bacteria that infect a great number of species of arthropods and nematodes. In insects, they are mainly known for disrupting the reproductive biology of their hosts in order to increase their transmission through the female germline. In Drosophila melanogaster, however, a strong and consistent effect of Wolbachia infection has not been found. Here we report that a bacterial infection renders D. melanogaster more resistant to Drosophila C virus, reducing the load of viruses in infected flies. We identify these resistance-inducing bacteria as Wolbachia. Furthermore, we show that Wolbachia also increases resistance of Drosophila to two other RNA virus infections (Nora virus and Flock House virus) but not to a DNA virus infection (Insect Iridescent Virus 6). These results identify a new major factor regulating D. melanogaster resistance to infection by RNA viruses and contribute to the idea that the response of a host to a particular pathogen also depends on its interactions with other microorganisms. This is also, to our knowledge, the first report of a strong beneficial effect of Wolbachia infection in D. melanogaster. The induced resistance to natural viral pathogens may explain Wolbachia prevalence in natural populations and represents a novel Wolbachia–host interaction.

Subfields: Immunology, Insect Science, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b6b300ca7d3367e3974a1d81fd68229e3ac68af4

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Immunology

1. N. Moran
2. Scott F. Gilbert
3. Z. Xi
4. Philipp Engel

In Insect Science

1. H. Feldhaar
2. Philipp Engel
3. N. Moran
4. Jan Sapp
5. Z. Xi
6. T. Pradeu
7. A. E. Douglas

In Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

1. Scott F. Gilbert
2. Z. Xi

Citations in the corpus

• The Endosymbiotic Bacterium Wolbachia Induces Resistance to Dengue Virus in Aedes aegypti (2010, background): “In the Drosophila S2 cell line, we also found that Wolbachia activates immune signaling pathways and induces the expression of antimicrobial peptide genes [15].”
• A Symbiotic View of Life: We Have Never Been Individuals (2012, background): “In several insect species, bacteria of the genus Wolbachia appear to play an important role in antiviral protection (Teixeira et al. 2008; Moreira et al. 2009; Hanson et al. 2011).”
• The gut microbiota of insects - diversity in structure and function. (2013, background): “…simultaneously confer benefits to hosts; for example, in Drosophila species, W. pipientis has been found to protect against infections by some RNA viruses (Hedges et al., 2008; Teixeira et al., 2008), and Spiroplasma has been shown to protect hosts against nematode parasites (Jaenike et al., 2010).”
• Natural variation in genome architecture among 205 Drosophila melanogaster Genetic Reference Panel lines (2014, background): “melanogaster has been associated with resistance to infection by RNA viruses (Teixeira et al., 2008), but the full range of effects of Wolbachia on development, physiology, reproduction and quantitative traits is unknown.”
• Bacterial symbionts as mediators of ecologically important traits of insect hosts (2011, background): “Recently Wolbachia has been shown to confer enhanced resistance towards a variety of RNA viruses in Drosophila (Hedges et al., 2008; Teixeira et al., 2008; Glaser & Meola, 2010) and other dipterans that are important vectors for viral diseases such as Culex quinquefasciatus or Aedes aegypti…”
• A Wolbachia symbiont in Aedes aegypti limits infection with dengue, Chikungunya, and Plasmodium. (2009, background): “Recent studies in Drosophila have shown that Wolbachia infections can protect against RNA viruses (Hedges et al., 2008; Teixeira et al., 2008).”