Identification of Parthenogenesis-Inducing Effector Proteins in Wolbachia.
Genome Biol Evol
; 16(4)2024 04 02.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38530785
ABSTRACT
Bacteria in the genus Wolbachia have evolved numerous strategies to manipulate arthropod sex, including the conversion of would-be male offspring to asexually reproducing females. This so-called "parthenogenesis induction" phenotype can be found in a number of Wolbachia strains that infect arthropods with haplodiploid sex determination systems, including parasitoid wasps. Despite the discovery of microbe-mediated parthenogenesis more than 30â
yr ago, the underlying genetic mechanisms have remained elusive. We used a suite of genomic, computational, and molecular tools to identify and characterize two proteins that are uniquely found in parthenogenesis-inducing Wolbachia and have strong signatures of host-associated bacterial effector proteins. These putative parthenogenesis-inducing proteins have structural homology to eukaryotic protein domains including nucleoporins, the key insect sex determining factor Transformer, and a eukaryotic-like serine-threonine kinase with leucine-rich repeats. Furthermore, these proteins significantly impact eukaryotic cell biology in the model Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We suggest that these proteins are parthenogenesis-inducing factors and our results indicate that this would be made possible by a novel mechanism of bacterial-host interaction.
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Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Vespas
/
Wolbachia
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Genome Biol Evol
Assunto da revista:
BIOLOGIA
/
BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos
País de publicação:
Reino Unido