Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 111, Issue 52, Pages 18721-18726Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1420131112
Keywords
Aedes aegypti; mosquito; microRNA
Categories
Funding
- Australian Research Council Discovery Grant [DP110102112]
- DECRA Fellowship [DE120101512]
- Foundation of the National Institutes of Health through the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
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In prokaryotes, small noncoding RNAs (snRNAs) of 50-500 nt are produced that are important in bacterial virulence and response to environmental stimuli. Here, we identified and characterized snRNAs from the endosymbiotic bacteria, Wolbachia, which are widespread in invertebrates and cause reproductive manipulations. Most importantly, some strains of Wolbachia inhibit replication of several vector-borne pathogens in insects. We demonstrate that two abundant snRNAs, WsnRNA-46 and WsnRNA-49, are expressed in Wolbachia from noncoding RNA transcripts that contain precursors with stem-loop structures. WsnRNAs were detected in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with the wMelPop-CLA strain of Wolbachia and in Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans infected with wMelPop and wAu strains, respectively, indicating that the WsnRNAs are conserved across species and strains. In addition, we show that the WsnRNAs may potentially regulate host genes and Wolbachia genes. Our findings provide evidence for the production of functional snRNAs by Wolbachia that play roles in cross-kingdom communication between the endosymbiont and the host.
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