Impact of Temperature on the Immune Interaction between a Parasitoid Wasp and Drosophila Host Species.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Cavigliasso F
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8303993 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The interactions between Drosophila melanogaster and the parasitoid wasps that infect Drosophila species provide an important model for understanding host-parasite relationships. Following parasitoid infection, D. melanogaster larvae mount a response in which immune cells (hemocytes) form a capsule around the wasp egg, which then melanizes, leading to death of the parasitoid. Previous studies have found that host hemocyte load; the number of hemocytes available for the encapsulation response; and the production of lamellocytes, an infection induced hemocyte type, are major determinants of host resistance. Parasitoids have evolved various virulence mechanisms to overcome the immune response of the D. melanogaster host, including both active immune suppression by venom proteins and passive immune evasive mechanisms. We identified a previously undescribed parasitoid species, Asobara sp. AsDen, which utilizes an active virulence mechanism to infect D. melanogaster hosts. Asobara sp. AsDen infection inhibits host hemocyte expression of msn, a member of the JNK signaling pathway, which plays a role in lamellocyte production. Asobara sp. AsDen infection restricts the production of lamellocytes as assayed by hemocyte cell morphology and altered msn expression. Our findings suggest that Asobara sp. AsDen infection alters host signaling to suppress immunity.
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Project description:Background: The introduction of species to new regions is occurring at an increasing rate. These introductions typically consist of species that are deliberately introduced for the purposes of biological control of pests or of species that are accidentally introduced through human-mediated transport networks.Understanding the potential and actual impacts of these introduced species requires comprehensive information on their geographic distributions and biological associations.However, apart from a few well-known case studies, such information is lacking for many introduced species which severely hinders further assessment of risks and impact.New information: A dataset is provided on host associations, geographic distributions and dates of collection for both deliberately and accidentally-introduced parasitoid wasp species (Hymenoptera) in New Zealand. Information was obtained by digitising specimens from the New Zealand Arthropod Collection. Dates of records range from 1921 to 2017.The dataset includes 1265 specimen records, representing 127 parasitoid species from 12 families, with host records for 177 host species from 61 families and eight insect orders.These data provide baseline information to help evaluate the risk from introduced parasitoids to non-target and native species.
| S-EPMC7723879 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Parasitoid diversity in terrestrial ecosystems is enormous. However, ecological processes underpinning their evolutionary diversification in association with other trophic groups are still unclear. Specialisation and interdependencies among chalcid wasps that reproduce on Ficus presents an opportunity to investigate the ecology of a multi-trophic system that includes parasitoids. Here we estimate the host-plant species specificity of a parasitoid fig wasp genus that attacks the galls of non-pollinating pteromalid and pollinating agaonid fig wasps. We discuss the interactions between parasitoids and the Ficus species present in a forest patch of Uganda in context with populations in Southern Africa. Haplotype networks are inferred to examine intraspecific mitochondrial DNA divergences and phylogenetic approaches used to infer putative species relationships. Taxonomic appraisal and putative species delimitation by molecular and morphological techniques are compared. Results demonstrate that a parasitoid fig wasp population is able to reproduce on at least four Ficus species present in a patch. This suggests that parasitoid fig wasps have relatively broad host-Ficus species ranges compared to fig wasps that oviposit internally. Parasitoid fig wasps did not recruit on all available host plants present in the forest census area and suggests an important ecological consequence in mitigating fitness trade-offs between pollinator and Ficus reproduction. The extent to which parasitoid fig wasps exert influence on the pollination mutualism must consider the fitness consequences imposed by the ability to interact with phenotypes of multiple Ficus and fig wasps species, but not equally across space and time.
| S-EPMC3438170 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The parasitoid wasp Ampulex compressa envenomates the brain of its host the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana), thereby making it a behaviorally compliant food supply for its offspring. The target of venom injection is a locomotory command center in the brain called the central complex. In this study, we investigate why stung cockroaches do not respond to injuries incurred during the manipulation process by the wasp. In particular, we examine how envenomation compromises nociceptive signaling pathways in the host. Noxious stimuli applied to the cuticle of stung cockroaches fail to evoke escape responses, even though nociceptive interneurons projecting to the brain respond normally. Hence, while nociceptive signals are carried forward to the brain, they fail to trigger robust nocifensive behavior. Electrophysiological recordings from the central complex of stung animals demonstrate decreases in peak firing rate, total firing, and duration of noxious-evoked activity. The single parameter best correlated with altered noxious-evoked behavioral responses of stung cockroaches is reduced duration of the evoked response in the central complex. Our findings demonstrate how the reproductive strategy of a parasitoid wasp is served by venom-mediated elimination of aversive, nocifensive behavior in its host.
| S-EPMC9411936 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Oak galls are spectacular extended phenotypes of gallwasp genes in host oak tissues and have evolved complex morphologies that serve, in part, to exclude parasitoid natural enemies.Parasitoids and their insect herbivore hosts have coevolved to produce diverse communities comprising about a third of all animal species. The factors structuring these communities, however, remain poorly understood. An emerging theme in community ecology is the need to consider the effects of host traits, shaped by both natural selection and phylogenetic history, on associated communities of natural enemies. Here we examine the impact of host traits and phylogenetic relatedness on 48 ecologically closed and species-rich communities of parasitoids attacking gall-inducing wasps on oaks. Gallwasps induce the development of spectacular and structurally complex galls whose species- and generation-specific morphologies are the extended phenotypes of gallwasp genes. All the associated natural enemies attack their concealed hosts through gall tissues, and several structural gall traits have been shown to enhance defence against parasitoid attack. Here we explore the significance of these and other host traits in predicting variation in parasitoid community structure across gallwasp species. In particular, we test the "Enemy Hypothesis," which predicts that galls with similar morphology will exclude similar sets of parasitoids and therefore have similar parasitoid communities. Having controlled for phylogenetic patterning in host traits and communities, we found significant correlations between parasitoid community structure and several gall structural traits (toughness, hairiness, stickiness), supporting the Enemy Hypothesis. Parasitoid community structure was also consistently predicted by components of the hosts' spatiotemporal niche, particularly host oak taxonomy and gall location (e.g., leaf versus bud versus seed). The combined explanatory power of structural and spatiotemporal traits on community structure can be high, reaching 62% in one analysis. The observed patterns derive mainly from partial niche specialisation of highly generalist parasitoids with broad host ranges (>20 hosts), rather than strict separation of enemies with narrower host ranges, and so may contribute to maintenance of the richness of generalist parasitoids in gallwasp communities. Though evolutionary escape from parasitoids might most effectively be achieved via changes in host oak taxon, extreme conservatism in this trait for gallwasps suggests that selection is more likely to have acted on gall morphology and location. Any escape from parasitoids associated with evolutionary shifts in these traits has probably only been transient, however, due to subsequent recruitment of parasitoid species already attacking other host galls with similar trait combinations.
| S-EPMC2719808 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundParasitoid resistance in Drosophila varies considerably, among and within species. An immune response, lamellocyte-mediated encapsulation, evolved in a subclade of Drosophila and was subsequently lost in at least one species within this subclade. While the mechanisms of resistance are fairly well documented in D. melanogaster, much less is known for closely related species. Here, we studied the inter- and intra-species variation in gene expression after parasitoid attack in Drosophila. We used RNA-seq after parasitization of four closely related Drosophila species of the melanogaster subgroup and replicated lines of D. melanogaster experimentally selected for increased resistance to gain insights into short- and long-term evolutionary changes.ResultsWe found a core set of genes that are consistently up-regulated after parasitoid attack in the species and lines tested, regardless of their level of resistance. Another set of genes showed no up-regulation or expression in D. sechellia, the species unable to raise an immune response against parasitoids. This set consists largely of genes that are lineage-restricted to the melanogaster subgroup. Artificially selected lines did not show significant differences in gene expression with respect to non-selected lines in their responses to parasitoid attack, but several genes showed differential exon usage.ConclusionsWe showed substantial similarities, but also notable differences, in the transcriptional responses to parasitoid attack among four closely related Drosophila species. In contrast, within D. melanogaster, the responses were remarkably similar. We confirmed that in the short-term, selection does not act on a pre-activation of the immune response. Instead it may target alternative mechanisms such as differential exon usage. In the long-term, we found support for the hypothesis that the ability to immunologically resist parasitoid attack is contingent on new genes that are restricted to the melanogaster subgroup.
| S-EPMC5406980 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The polydnavirus Campoletis sonorensis virus (CsV) is present in the oviducts of all adult C. sonorensis female wasps and appears to be required for these wasps to parasitize hosts successfully. Physical mapping, Southern blot analysis, and nucleotide sequence analysis demonstrate that the viral DNA B-specific sequences in cloned wasp DNA are colinear with viral genomic segment DNA B from nucleocapsids and are covalently linked to nonviral wasp sequences. Integrated DNA B terminates in 59-nucleotide imperfect direct repeats, but a single repeat exists in the extrachromosomal superhelical viral DNA B. Sequences near each junction form imperfect inverted repeats with sequences near the ends of an internal viral 540-base-pair repeat element gene. CsV appears to be the first documented integrated, nonretroviral DNA virus of insects and probably is vertically transmitted as a provirus.
| S-EPMC52802 | biostudies-other
Project description:Because parasite virulence factors target host immune responses, identification and functional characterization of these factors can provide insight into poorly understood host immune mechanisms. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is a model system for understanding humoral innate immunity, but Drosophila cellular innate immune responses remain incompletely characterized. Fruit flies are regularly infected by parasitoid wasps in nature and, following infection, flies mount a cellular immune response culminating in the cellular encapsulation of the wasp egg. The mechanistic basis of this response is largely unknown, but wasps use a mixture of virulence proteins derived from the venom gland to suppress cellular encapsulation. To gain insight into the mechanisms underlying wasp virulence and fly cellular immunity, we used a joint transcriptomic/proteomic approach to identify venom genes from Ganaspis sp.1 (G1), a previously uncharacterized Drosophila parasitoid species, and found that G1 venom contains a highly abundant sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase (SERCA) pump. Accordingly, we found that fly immune cells termed plasmatocytes normally undergo a cytoplasmic calcium burst following infection, and that this calcium burst is required for activation of the cellular immune response. We further found that the plasmatocyte calcium burst is suppressed by G1 venom in a SERCA-dependent manner, leading to the failure of plasmatocytes to become activated and migrate toward G1 eggs. Finally, by genetically manipulating plasmatocyte calcium levels, we were able to alter fly immune success against G1 and other parasitoid species. Our characterization of parasitoid wasp venom proteins led us to identify plasmatocyte cytoplasmic calcium bursts as an important aspect of fly cellular immunity.
| S-EPMC3677475 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The parasitoid emerald jewel wasp Ampulex compressa induces a compliant state of hypokinesia in its host, the American cockroach Periplaneta americana through direct envenomation of the central nervous system (CNS). To elucidate the biochemical strategy underlying venom-induced hypokinesia, we subjected the venom apparatus and milked venom to RNAseq and proteomics analyses to construct a comprehensive "venome," consisting of 264 proteins. Abundant in the venome are enzymes endogenous to the host brain, including M13 family metalloproteases, phospholipases, adenosine deaminase, hyaluronidase, and neuropeptide precursors. The amphipathic, alpha-helical ampulexins are among the most abundant venom components. Also prominent are members of the Toll/NF-κB signaling pathway, including proteases Persephone, Snake, Easter, and the Toll receptor ligand Spätzle. We find evidence that venom components are processed following envenomation. The acidic (pH∼4) venom contains unprocessed neuropeptide tachykinin and corazonin precursors and is conspicuously devoid of the corresponding processed, biologically active peptides. Neutralization of venom leads to appearance of mature tachykinin and corazonin, suggesting that the wasp employs precursors as a prolonged time-release strategy within the host brain post-envenomation. Injection of fully processed tachykinin into host cephalic ganglia elicits short-term hypokinesia. Ion channel modifiers and cytolytic toxins are absent in A. compressa venom, which appears to hijack control of the host brain by introducing a "storm" of its own neurochemicals. Our findings deepen understanding of the chemical warfare underlying host-parasitoid interactions and in particular neuromodulatory mechanisms that enable manipulation of host behavior to suit the nutritional needs of opportunistic parasitoid progeny.
| S-EPMC6317478 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The partial mitochondrial genome sequence of Leptopilina boulardi (Hymenoptera: Figitidae) was characterized. Illumina sequencing was used yielding 35,999,679 reads, from which 102,482 were utilized in the assembly. The length of the sequenced region of this partial mitochondrial genome is 15,417 bp, consisting of 13 protein-coding, two rRNA, and 21tRNA genes (the trnaM failed to be sequenced) and a partial A+T-rich region. All protein-coding genes start with ATN codons. Eleven protein-coding genes presented TAA stop codons, whereas ND6 and COII that presented TA, and T nucleotides, respectively. The gene pattern revealed extensive rearrangements compared to the typical pattern generally observed in insects. These rearrangements involve two protein-coding and two ribosomal genes, along with the 16 tRNA genes. This gene order is different from the pattern described for Ibalia leucospoides (Ibaliidae, Cynipoidea), suggesting that this particular gene order can be variable among Cynipoidea superfamily members. A maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis of the main groups of Apocrita was performed using amino acid sequence of 13 protein-coding genes, showing monophyly for the Cynipoidea superfamily within the Hymenoptera phylogeny.
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