title: An insect symbiosis is influenced by bacterium-specific polymorphisms in outer-membrane protein A.
abstract: Beneficial bacterial symbioses are ubiquitous in nature. However, the functional and molecular basis of host tolerance to resident symbiotic microbes, in contrast to resistance to closely related bacteria that are recognized as foreign, remain largely unknown. We used the tsetse fly (Glossina morsitans), which depends on symbiotic flora for fecundity and has limited exposure to foreign microbes, to investigate the tolerance phenomenon exhibited during symbiosis. We examined the potential role of bacterium-specific polymorphisms present in the major bacterial surface protein, outer-membrane protein A (OmpA), on host infection outcomes. Tsetse were successfully superinfected with their mutualistic facultative symbiont, Sodalis glossinidius, whereas infections with Escherichia coli K12 were lethal. In contrast, tsetse were resistant to an E. coli OmpA mutant strain, whereas recombinant Sodalis expressing E. coli OmpA became pathogenic. Profiling of tsetse immunity-related gene expression incriminated peptidoglycan recognition protein (pgrp)-lb as a determinant of the infection outcomes we observed. RNAi-induced knockdown of tsetse pgrp-lb significantly reduced host mortality after infection with otherwise lethal E. coli K12. Our results show that polymorphisms in the exposed loop domains of OmpA represent a microbial adaptation that mediates host tolerance of endogenous symbiotic bacteria.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Section of Vector Biology, Yale University School of Medicine, LEPH 606, 60 College Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Brian L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: Yineng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Jonathon J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Schwank
authors.forename: Nicholas S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Tolwinski
authors.forename: Serap
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aksoy
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000235:genetics*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary / Q000235:genetics; D013559:Symbiosis / Q000235:genetics*; D014370:Tsetse Flies / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; C078167:OMPA outer membrane proteins