TY - JOUR
T1 - Wolbachia Protein TomO Targets nanos mRNA and Restores Germ Stem Cells in Drosophila Sex-lethal Mutants
AU - Ote, Manabu
AU - Ueyama, Morio
AU - Yamamoto, Daisuke
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Azusa Utsumi and Mayura Suyama for secretarial assistance. This work was supported in part by Grant-in-Aids for Scientific Research ( 16H06371 , 15K14306 , 26113702 , 26114502 , and 23220007 ) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to D.Y.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2016/9/12
Y1 - 2016/9/12
N2 - Wolbachia, endosymbiotic bacteria prevalent in invertebrates, manipulate their hosts in a variety of ways: they induce cytoplasmic incompatibility, male lethality, male-to-female transformation, and parthenogenesis. However, little is known about the molecular basis for host manipulation by these bacteria. In Drosophila melanogaster, Wolbachia infection makes otherwise sterile Sex-lethal (Sxl) mutant females capable of producing mature eggs. Through a functional genomic screen for Wolbachia genes with growth-inhibitory effects when expressed in cultured Drosophila cells, we identified the gene WD1278 encoding a novel protein we call toxic manipulator of oogenesis (TomO), which phenocopies some of the Wolbachia effects in Sxl mutant D. melanogaster females. We demonstrate that TomO enhances the maintenance of germ stem cells (GSCs) by elevating Nanos (Nos) expression via its interaction with nos mRNA, ultimately leading to the restoration of germ cell production in Sxl mutant females that are otherwise without GSCs.
AB - Wolbachia, endosymbiotic bacteria prevalent in invertebrates, manipulate their hosts in a variety of ways: they induce cytoplasmic incompatibility, male lethality, male-to-female transformation, and parthenogenesis. However, little is known about the molecular basis for host manipulation by these bacteria. In Drosophila melanogaster, Wolbachia infection makes otherwise sterile Sex-lethal (Sxl) mutant females capable of producing mature eggs. Through a functional genomic screen for Wolbachia genes with growth-inhibitory effects when expressed in cultured Drosophila cells, we identified the gene WD1278 encoding a novel protein we call toxic manipulator of oogenesis (TomO), which phenocopies some of the Wolbachia effects in Sxl mutant D. melanogaster females. We demonstrate that TomO enhances the maintenance of germ stem cells (GSCs) by elevating Nanos (Nos) expression via its interaction with nos mRNA, ultimately leading to the restoration of germ cell production in Sxl mutant females that are otherwise without GSCs.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.cub.2016.06.054
DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2016.06.054
M3 - Article
C2 - 27498563
AN - SCOPUS:84995899103
VL - 26
SP - 2223
EP - 2232
JO - Current Biology
JF - Current Biology
SN - 0960-9822
IS - 17
ER -