AUTHOR=Asgharian Hosseinali , Chang Peter L. , Mazzoglio Peter J. , Negri Ilaria 

TITLE=Wolbachia is not all about sex: male-feminizing Wolbachia alters the leafhopper Zyginidia pullula transcriptome in a mainly sex-independent manner

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=5

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00430

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2014.00430

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Wolbachia</italic> causes the feminization of chromosomally male embryos in several species of crustaceans and insects, including the leafhopper <italic>Zyginidia pullula</italic>. In contrast to the relatively well-established ecological aspects of male feminization (e.g., sex ratio distortion and its consequences), the underlying molecular mechanisms remain understudied and unclear. We embarked on an exploratory study to investigate the extent and nature of <italic>Wolbachia</italic>'s effect on gene expression pattern in <italic>Z. pullula</italic>. We sequenced whole transcriptomes from <italic>Wolbachia</italic>-infected and uninfected adults. 18147 loci were assembled <italic>de novo</italic>, including homologs of several <italic>Drosophila</italic> sex determination genes. A number of transcripts were flagged as candidate <italic>Wolbachia</italic> sequences. Despite the resemblance of <italic>Wolbachia</italic>-infected chromosomal males to uninfected and infected chromosomal females in terms of sexual morphology and behavior, principal component analysis revealed that gene expression patterns did not follow these sexual phenotype categories. The principal components generated by differentially expressed genes specified a strong sex-independent <italic>Wolbachia</italic> effect, followed by a weaker <italic>Wolbachia-sexual</italic> karyotype interaction effect. Approaches to further examine the molecular mechanism of <italic>Wolbachia</italic>-host interactions have been suggested based on the presented findings.</p>