Project description:Complete genome sequencing and comparative phylogenomics of multiple African swine fever virus (ASFV) field isolates of the virulent East African p72 genotype IX viruses
Project description:Parasitoid wasps of the species Diachasmimorpha longicaudata are associated with a heritable poxvirus, known as DlEPV, that is stored in the venom gland of adult female wasps and transferred to tephritid fly hosts of the wasps during oviposition. We conducted a RNA-seq differential expression analysis to gain insight on how DlEPV can replicate in both wasps and their fly hosts but only cause pathogenic effects during replication in flies. Our analysis revealed that 91.2% (176 of 193) of DlEPV genes showed significant differential expression during peak virus replication in wasp venom glands compared to parasitized flies. Over 80% of DlEPV replication genes were significantly upregulated in wasps, while 79% of DlEPV putative virulence genes were significantly upregulated in fly hosts. These data therefore support a dichotomy of viral function, where virus replication is promoted in wasp tissue and virulence in host tissue. Such a division of viral activity could represent an important adaptation to maintain a stable symbiosis between this virus and its associated parasitoid.
Project description:Parasitoid wasps are one of the most species-rich groups of animals on Earth, due to their ability to successfully develop as parasites of nearly all types of insects. Unlike most known parasitoid wasps that specialize within one or a few host species, Diachasmimorpha longicaudata is a generalist that can survive within multiple genera of tephritid fruit fly hosts, including many globally important pest species. D. longicaudata has therefore been widely released to suppress pest populations as part of biological control efforts in tropical and subtropical agricultural systems. In this study, we investigated the role of a mutualistic poxvirus in shaping the host range of D. longicaudata across three genera of agricultural pest species: two of which are permissive hosts for D. longicaudata parasitism and one that is a nonpermissive host. We found that permissive hosts Ceratitis capitata and Bactrocera dorsalis were highly susceptible to virus infection, displaying rapid virus replication and abundant fly mortality. However, the nonpermissive host Zeugodacus cucurbitae largely overcame virus infection, exhibiting substantially lower mortality and no virus replication. Further investigation of transcriptional dynamics during virus infection demonstrated hindered viral gene expression and limited changes in fly gene expression within the nonpermissive host compared to the permissive species, indicating that the host range of the viral symbiont may dictate the host range of D. longicaudata wasps. These findings also reveal that viral symbiont activity may be a major contributor to the success of D. longicaudata as a generalist parasitoid species and a globally successful biological control agent.
Project description:In order to study the transcriptional response of the fly brain to sugar and complete starvation, we first confirmed that 24 hours of sugar and complete starvation in flies is sufficient to elicit a homeostatic response. Subsequently, we used holidic medium to study effects of deficiency of a specfic macronutrient- cabohydrate in the food. To do so , we generated RNA- seq libraries from brains of 5 day old mated adult male flies maintained on different feeding regimes and used the sequencing data to identify diffrentially expressed genes in the brain under different feeding regimes.