ArticlePLoS pathogens2015
The Endosymbiotic Bacterium Wolbachia Selectively Kills Male Hosts by Targeting the Masculinizing Gene.
Article in PLoS pathogens, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 133 citations in OpenAlex.
- Molecular mechanisms of sex determination in Lepidoptera: current status and perspectives.Insect science · 2026Review
- Genome assembly and protein structure modeling reveal key molecular features of divergentMicrobiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Complete transition from chromosomal to cytoplasmic sex determination during prolonged Wolbachia symbiosis.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Article
- Endosymbionts interacting with sex-determining genes and processes.Current opinion in insect science · 2025Review
- Single-cell genome analysis of a feminizingMicrobial genomics · 2025Article
- A W chromosome-derived feminizing piRNA in pyralid moths demonstrates convergent evolution for primary sex determination signals in Lepidoptera.BMC biology · 2025Article
- The Masc-PSI complex directly induces male-type doublesex splicing in silkworms.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Elucidating the Molecular Mechanisms of Sex Ratio Distortion Mediated by Cytoplasmic Symbionts.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Review
- Prophage-encodedeLife · 2025Article
- Cell-based assays and comparative genomics revealed the conserved and hidden effects ofPNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Describing endosymbiont-host interactions within the parasitism-mutualism continuum.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Zygosity-based sex determination in a butterfly drives hypervariability ofScience advances · 2024Article
- Article
- Review
- Article
- Three feminizingFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Article
- Male-killing virus in a noctuid mothProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Combined actions of bacteriophage-encoded genes iniScience · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Pathogens are known to manipulate the reproduction and development of their hosts for their own benefit. Wolbachia is an endosymbiotic bacterium that infects a wide range of insect species. Wolbachia is known as an example of a parasite that manipulates the sex of its host's progeny. Infection of Ostrinia moths by Wolbachia causes the production of all-female progeny, however, the mechanism of how Wolbachia accomplishes this male-specific killing is unknown. Here we show for the first time that Wolbachia targets the host masculinizing gene of Ostrinia to accomplish male-killing. We found that Wolbachia-infected O. furnacalis embryos do not express the male-specific splice variant of doublesex, a gene which acts at the downstream end of the sex differentiation cascade, throughout embryonic development. Transcriptome analysis revealed that Wolbachia infection markedly reduces the mRNA level of Masc, a gene that encodes a protein required for both masculinization and dosage compensation in the silkworm Bombyx mori. Detailed bioinformatic analysis also elucidated that dosage compensation of Z-linked genes fails in Wolbachia-infected O. furnacalis embryos, a phenomenon that is extremely similar to that observed in Masc mRNA-depleted male embryos of B. mori. Finally, injection of in vitro transcribed Masc cRNA into Wolbachia-infected embryos rescued male progeny. Our results show that Wolbachia-induced male-killing is caused by a failure of dosage compensation via repression of the host masculinizing gene. Our study also shows a novel strategy by which a pathogen hijacks the host sex determination cascade.
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