Gene expression changes inDrosophila melanogasterfemales associated with the rescue of thebag of marbles(bam) hypomorph fertility defect byWolbachia pipientis

Abstract

AbstractWolbachia pipientisare maternally transmitted endosymbiotic bacteria commonly found in arthropods and nematodes. These bacteria manipulate reproduction of the host to increase their transmission using mechanisms, such as cytoplasmic incompatibility, that favor infected female offspring. Interestingly,W. pipientisinfection partially rescues female fertility in flies containing hypomorph mutations ofbag of marbles(bam) inD. melanogaster, which functions in germline stem cell (GSC) maintenance and differentiation. Here we evaluated the effect ofW. pipientisvariant infection on host gene expression using RNA-seq. RNA-seq analysis using theW. pipientisinfected relative to uninfectedbamhypomorph genotype had differential expression for many ofbam’sgenetic and physical interactors. The highest magnitude of differential expression ofbam’sinteractors and other GSC genes involved in cystoblast differentiation occurred prior to peak fertility rescue. Our analysis showed that ubiquitination and histone lysine methylation could be important mechanisms involved in thebamhypomorph fertility rescue byW. pipientis.