scholarly journals Endosymbiotic Rickettsiella causes cytoplasmic incompatibility in a spider host

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1930) ◽  
pp. 20201107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura C. Rosenwald ◽  
Michael I. Sitvarin ◽  
Jennifer A. White

Many arthropod hosts are infected with bacterial endosymbionts that manipulate host reproduction, but few bacterial taxa have been shown to cause such manipulations. Here, we show that a bacterial strain in the genus Rickettsiella causes cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) between infected and uninfected hosts. We first surveyed the bacterial community of the agricultural spider Mermessus fradeorum (Linyphiidae) using high throughput sequencing and found that individual spiders can be infected with up to five different strains of maternally inherited symbiont from the genera Wolbachia , Rickettsia , and Rickettsiella . The Rickettsiella strain was pervasive, found in all 23 tested spider matrilines. We used antibiotic curing to generate uninfected matrilines that we reciprocally crossed with individuals infected only with Rickettsiella . We found that only 13% of eggs hatched when uninfected females were mated with Rickettsiella -infected males; in contrast, at least 83% of eggs hatched in the other cross types. This is the first documentation of Rickettsiella , or any Gammaproteobacteria, causing CI. We speculate that induction of CI may be much more widespread among maternally inherited bacteria than previously appreciated. Further, our results reinforce the importance of thoroughly characterizing and assessing the inherited microbiome before attributing observed host phenotypes to well-characterized symbionts such as Wolbachia .

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura C. Rosenwald ◽  
Michael I. Sitvarin ◽  
Jennifer A. White

AbstractMany arthropod hosts are infected with bacterial endosymbionts that manipulate host reproduction, but few bacterial taxa have been shown to cause such manipulations. Here we show that a bacterial strain in the genus Rickettsiella causes cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) between infected and uninfected hosts. We first surveyed the bacterial community of the agricultural spider Mermessus fradeorum (Linyphiidae) using high throughput sequencing and found that individual spiders can be infected with up to five different strains of maternally-inherited symbiont from the genera Wolbachia, Rickettsia, and Rickettsiella. The Rickettsiella strain was pervasive, found in all 23 tested spider matrilines. We used antibiotic curing to generate uninfected matrilines that we reciprocally crossed with individuals infected only with Rickettsiella. We found that only 13% of eggs hatched when uninfected females were mated with Rickettsiella-infected males; in contrast, at least 83% of eggs hatched in the other cross types. This is the first documentation of Rickettsiella, or any Gammaproteobacteria, causing CI. We speculate that induction of CI may be much more widespread among maternally-inherited bacteria than previously appreciated. Further, our results reinforce the importance of thoroughly characterizing and assessing the inherited microbiome before attributing observed host phenotypes to well-characterized symbionts such as Wolbachia.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 2120
Author(s):  
Jessica Frigerio ◽  
Giulia Agostinetto ◽  
Valerio Mezzasalma ◽  
Fabrizio De De Mattia ◽  
Massimo Labra ◽  
...  

Medicinal plants have been widely used in traditional medicine due to their therapeutic properties. Although they are mostly used as herbal infusion and tincture, employment as ingredients of food supplements is increasing. However, fraud and adulteration are widespread issues. In our study, we aimed at evaluating DNA metabarcoding as a tool to identify product composition. In order to accomplish this, we analyzed fifteen commercial products with DNA metabarcoding, using two barcode regions: psbA-trnH and ITS2. Results showed that on average, 70% (44–100) of the declared ingredients have been identified. The ITS2 marker appears to identify more species (n = 60) than psbA-trnH (n = 35), with an ingredients’ identification rate of 52% versus 45%, respectively. Some species are identified only by one marker rather than the other. Additionally, in order to evaluate the quantitative ability of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) to compare the plant component to the corresponding assigned sequences, in the laboratory, we created six mock mixtures of plants starting both from biomass and gDNA. Our analysis also supports the application of DNA metabarcoding for a relative quantitative analysis. These results move towards the application of HTS analysis for studying the composition of herbal teas for medicinal plants’ traceability and quality control.


2019 ◽  
Vol 110 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-320
Author(s):  
Chen Lin ◽  
Zhou Wei ◽  
Zhou Yi ◽  
Tan Tingting ◽  
Du Huamao ◽  
...  

AbstractNanosilver is an environment-friendly, harmless alternative of traditional disinfectants which can be potentially applied in the sericulture industry. However, the effects of nanosilver on the intestinal bacterial community of the silkworms (Bombyx mori L.) are unclear. In this study, Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing technology was used to assess the intestinal bacterial community in both male and female silkworms while treated with different concentrations of nanosilver. We found that nanosilver significantly influenced the composition of silkworm intestinal bacterial community on the different taxonomic levels. Most conspicuously, the abundance of Firmicutes was increased by the treatment of 20 mg L−1 nanosilver but decreased by that of 100 mg L−1 nanosilver at the phylum level. The same trend was observed in Bacilli at the class level and in Enterococcus at the genus level. In some extreme cases, application of nanosilver eliminated the bacterium, e.g., Brevibacillus, but increased the population of several other bacteria in the host intestine, such as Blautia, Terrisporobacter, Faecalibacterium, and some bacteria could only be found in nanosilver treatment groups, e.g., Dialister. In addition, although nanosilver generally showed negative effects on the cocooning rate in a dose-dependent manner, we found that 20 mg L−1 nanosilver treatment significantly increased the body weight of silkworms and did not show negative effects on the survival rate. These results indicated that the intestinal bacteria community of silkworm larvae was significantly changed after nanosilver treatment which might consequently influence host growth and development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (9) ◽  
pp. 1557-1564
Author(s):  
LINLIN JIANG ◽  
JIANLONG ZHANG ◽  
JINXIU TANG ◽  
MENG LI ◽  
XIAOYU ZHAO ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study was to analyze the aerosol concentrations and microbial community structures in closed cage broiler houses at different broiler growth stages to assess the dynamic pattern of microbial aerosols in closed cage systems. Our results revealed that the total concentration of bacterial aerosols gradually increased during the growth cycle of broilers. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rDNA revealed that microbial compositions differed tremendously during different growth stages, although Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were the dominant taxa in samples from all broiler growth stages. At the genus level, dominant phylotypes displayed great variation during different growth stages. Escherichia and Shigella were the most dominant taxa throughout the growth cycle, increasing from 4.3 to 12.4% as the broilers grew. The alpha index revealed that the microbial diversity displayed significant differences between the different growth stages and that the bacterial community had the highest diversity when broilers were 22 days old. High-throughput sequencing analyses revealed that environmental microbes and opportunistic pathogens had relatively high abundances during the winter growth period. The data revealed the composition and aerodynamic diameters of microbial aerosols in closed cage broiler houses at different broiler growth stages in winter. The results also enabled us to elucidate the dynamic pattern of microbial aerosols in broiler houses in response to bacterial communities. Our results may provide a basis for developing technologies for air quality control in caged poultry houses.


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