Antimicrobial peptides keep insect endosymbionts under control.
Vertically transmitted endosymbionts persist for millions of years in invertebrates and play an important role in animal evolution. However, the functional basis underlying the maintenance of these long-term resident bacteria is unknown. We report that the weevil coleoptericin-A (ColA) antimicrobial peptide selectively targets endosymbionts within the bacteriocytes and regulates their growth through the inhibition of cell division. Silencing the colA gene with RNA interference resulted in a decrease in size of the giant filamentous endosymbionts, which escaped from the bacteriocytes and spread into insect tissues. Although this family of peptides is commonly linked with microbe clearance, this work shows that endosymbiosis benefits from ColA, suggesting that long-term host-symbiont coevolution might have shaped immune effectors for symbiont maintenance.
INSA-Lyon, INRA, UMR203 BF2I, Biologie Fonctionnelle Insectes et Interactions, F-69621 Villeurbanne, France.
Frédéric H
FH
Login
Séverine
S
Balmand
Agnès
A
Vallier
Carole
C
Vincent-Monégat
Aurélien
A
Vigneron
Michèle
M
Weiss-Gayet
Didier
D
Rochat
Abdelaziz
A
Heddi
D000818:Animals; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D018834:Chaperonin 60 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D005216:Fat Body / Q000378:metabolism; D020563:Gammaproteobacteria / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D016982:Micrococcus luteus / Q000187:drug effects; D009865:Oocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D034622:RNA Interference; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000187:drug effects; D013559:Symbiosis; D048889:Weevils / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000382:microbiology*
D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D018834:Chaperonin 60; D019476:Insect Proteins; C072097:coleoptericin protein, insect