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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2006, p. 7013-7021, Vol. 72, No. 11
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01507-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Interspecific Transfer of Bacterial Endosymbionts between Tsetse Fly Species: Infection Establishment and Effect on Host Fitness{triangledown}

Brian L. Weiss,1 Rosa Mouchotte,2 Rita V. M. Rio,1,{ddagger} Yi-neng Wu,1 Zheyang Wu,1 Abdelaziz Heddi,2 and Serap Aksoy1*

Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, LEPH 606, 60 College Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06510,1 UMR INRA/INSA de Lyon Biologie Fonctionnelle, Insectes et Interactions (BF2I), INSA de Lyon, 20 Avenue Albert Einstein, 69621 Villeurbanne Cedex, France2

Received 29 June 2006/ Accepted 19 August 2006

Tsetse flies (Glossina spp.) can harbor up to three distinct species of endosymbiotic bacteria that exhibit unique modes of transmission and evolutionary histories with their host. Two mutualist enterics, Wigglesworthia and Sodalis, are transmitted maternally to tsetse flies' intrauterine larvae. The third symbiont, from the genus Wolbachia, parasitizes developing oocytes. In this study, we determined that Sodalis isolates from several tsetse fly species are virtually identical based on a phylogenetic analysis of their ftsZ gene sequences. Furthermore, restriction fragment-length polymorphism analysis revealed little variation in the genomes of Sodalis isolates from tsetse fly species within different subgenera (Glossina fuscipes fuscipes and Glossina morsitans morsitans). We also examined the impact on host fitness of transinfecting G. fuscipes fuscipes and G. morsitans morsitans flies with reciprocal Sodalis strains. Tsetse flies cleared of their native Sodalis symbionts were successfully repopulated with the Sodalis species isolated from a different tsetse fly species. These transinfected flies effectively transmitted the novel symbionts to their offspring and experienced no detrimental fitness effects compared to their wild-type counterparts, as measured by longevity and fecundity. Quantitative PCR analysis revealed that transinfected flies maintained their Sodalis populations at densities comparable to those in flies harboring native symbionts. Our ability to transinfect tsetse flies is indicative of Sodalis ' recent evolutionary history with its tsetse fly host and demonstrates that this procedure may be used as a means of streamlining future paratransgenesis experiments.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, LEPH 606, 60 College Street, New Haven, CT 06510. Phone: (203) 737-2180. Fax: (203) 785-4782. E-mail: Serap.Aksoy{at}yale.edu.

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 1 September 2006.

{ddagger} Present address: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, 91 N. Eagleville Rd., Unit 3125, Storrs, CT 06269.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2006, p. 7013-7021, Vol. 72, No. 11
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01507-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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