Association of Wolbachia with Gene Expression in Drosophila Testes

Wolbachia is a genus of intracellular symbiotic bacteria that are widely distributed in arthropods and nematodes. These maternally inherited regulate host reproductive systems various ways to facilitate their vertical transmission. Since the identification many insects, relationship between has attracted great interest. Numerous studies have indicated modifies variety biological processes host. Previous Drosophila melanogaster (D. melanogaster) demonstrated can affect spermatid differentiation, chromosome deposition, sperm activity early stages spermatogenesis, leading dysfunction. Here, we explored putative effect maturation using transcriptomic approaches compare gene expression Wolbachia-infected Wolbachia-free D. adult testes. Our findings show affects testes, most differentially expressed genes involved carbohydrate metabolism, lysosomal degradation, proteolysis, lipid immune response were upregulated presence Wolbachia. In contrast, some putatively associated with cutin wax biosynthesis peroxisome pathways downregulated. We did not find any predicted be related spermatogenesis datasets. This work provides additional information for understanding Wolbachia-host relationships.