Studies on the effects of Wolbachia endosymbiont on sex determination of lepidopteran insects

在一种蝴蝶中，沃尔巴克氏菌内共生体将遗传雄性昆虫雌性化为有功能的雌性蝴蝶。在这里，我成功地在家蚕细胞培养中保持了沃尔巴克氏杆菌。结果表明，沃尔巴克氏菌在家蚕活体内大量繁殖，但未发现沃尔巴克氏菌传播给后代。此外，沃尔巴克氏菌还能改变野牡丹性别决定基因的剪接，从雄性模式转变为雌性模式。这清楚地表明，沃尔巴克氏菌在幼虫发育过程中对性别决定基因(S)的持续作用是蝴蝶完全雌性化所必需的。

In a butterfly Eurema mandarina, Wolbachia endosymbiont is known to feminize genetic males into functional females. Here I succeeded in maintaining Wolbachia in a cell culture of the silkworm Bombyx mori. Wolbachia was shown to proliferate sufficiently in the living body of B. mori but no Wolbachia was found to be transmitted to the offspring. Further, Wolbachia was found to alter the splicing of a sex determining gene of E. mandarina from male pattern to female pattern. It was clearly shown that continuous effect of Wolbachia on sex determining gene (s) during larval development is necessary for complete feminization of the butterfly.