Identification of overexpressed genes in Sodalis glossinidius inhabiting trypanosome-infected self-cured tsetse flies

authors

Hamidou Soumana Illiassou
Tchicaya Bernadette
Loriod Béatrice B.
Rihet Pascal
Geiger Anne

keywords

Self-cured tsetse flies
Control flies
Tripartite interactions
Sleeping sickness
Tsetse-symbiont-trypanosomes

document type

ART

abstract

Sodalisglossinidius,oneofthethreetsetseflymaternallyinheritedsymbionts,waspreviouslyshowntofavorflyinfectionbytrypanosomes,theparasitescausinghumansleepingsickness.Amongapopulationoffliestakingatrypanosome-infectedbloodmeal,onlyafewindividualswillacquiretheparasite;theotherswillescapeinfectionandbeconsideredasrefractorytotrypanosomeinfection.TheaimoftheworkwastoinvestigatewhetherflyrefractorinesscouldbeassociatedwithspecificSodalisgeneexpression.ThetranscriptomeofS.glossinidiusharboredbyfliesthatwerefedeitherwithanon-infectedbloodmeal(control)orwithatrypanosome-infectedmealbutthatdidnotdevelopinfectionwereanalyzed,usingmicroarraytechnology,andcompared.Theanalysisusingthemicroarrayprocedureyielded17genesthatwerefoundtohaveasignificantdifferentialexpressionbetweenthetwogroups.Interestingly,allthesegeneswereoverexpressedinself-cured(refractory)flies.Furtheranalysisoffunctionalannotationofthesegenesindicatedthatmostassociatedbiologicalprocesstermswererelatedtometabolicandbiosyntheticprocessesaswellastooxido-reductionmechanisms.Theseresultsevidencetheoccurrenceofmolecularcrosstalkbetweenthedifferentpartners,inducedbythepassageofthetrypanosomesthroughthefly’sguteventhoughtheparasiteswereunabletoestablishinthegutandtodevelopapermanentinfection.

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