[Population genetic analysis of Drosophila melanogaster longevity: similar effects of endosymbiont Wolbachia and tumor suppressor lgl under conditions of temperature stress].

Before, it has been shown that keeping of Drosophila wild populations under temperature stress leads to prevalence of deletion alleles of tumor suppressor lgl, and higher survival of heterozygous lgl(-)/+ females descendants (haploadaptivity). On the other hand, recent investigations have demonstrated that an additional dose of lgl gene in transgenic males has inadaptive effect--cytoplasmic incompatibility, caused by the gene, is similar to the effect caused by the widespread endosymbiont Wolbachia. Both triple dose of lgl and Wolbachia infection invoke hyperexpression of some cytoskeleton proteins which leads to sperm defects and sterility of hybrid zygotes. Proceeding from this similarity, we studied the Wolbachia effect on Drosophila longevity (LG) depending on the bacteria strain, host genotype and sex, and maintenance temperature. With use of tetracycline, six Wolbachia-free lines were produced, analogical to the infected wild ones. After analyzing LG under optimal temperature conditions (25 degrees C), the lines were subdivided into three genotypic groups, differing by the LG, mortality dynamics, and type of sexual dimorphism. Under conditions of temperature stress (16 degrees C and 29 degrees C) the lines ranks with respect to LG remained as they were, though the distinctions between them were smoothed out. In other words, the effect of the genes regulating LG parameters depends on maintenance conditions. The research also revealed sharp genetic distinctions between LG parameters of two standard laboratory lines Canton and Oregon that were taken as the control. These distinctions do not disappear in crossings. In the infected lines, in seven experiments out of thirty (20% of cases) significant sex-specific influence of Wolbachia on LG was revealed, namely, in two combinations at the optimal temperature 25 degrees C, and in five combinations at stress temperatures. Under the optimal temperature conditions the endosymbiont shortened its host LG in both cases, while at stress temperatures, in four cases out of five, it extended the host LG. Females of the long-living line Bi90 (wMel) from a mountain Kirghiz population appeared to be especially sensitive to the infection carriage--their endosymbiont-caused LG extension was observed both under cold and heat stresses. This result is analogues to the effect of diminishing the oncosupressor lgl dose. In both cases LG extends only under temperature stress, and this positive effect is sex-specific.

[The endosymbiont Wolbachia in Eurasian populations of Drosophila melanogaster].

The endosymbiotic [alpha]-proteobacteria Wolbachia is widely spread among arthropods and Filariidae nematodes. This bacterium is transmitted vertically via a transovarian route. Wolbachia is a cause of several reproductive abnormalities in the host species. We analyzed the isofemale lines created using flies collected from Drosophila melanogaster natural populations for infection with the endosymbiont Wolbachia. Wolbachia were genotyped according to five variable markers: the presence of insertion sequence IS5 in two loci, the copy number of two minisatellite repeats, and an inversion. Overall, 665 isofemale lines isolated from the populations of D. melanogaster from Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Caucasus, Central Asia, Ural, Udmurtia, Altai, West and East Siberia, and Far East in 1974 through 2005 were used in the work. The samples from Ukrainian, Altaian, and Middle Asian populations were largest. The infection rate of D. melanogaster populations from Middle Asia, Altaian, and Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Moldavia, and Belarus) with Wolbachia amounted to 64, 56, and 39%, respectively. The D. melanogaster population from the Caucasus displayed heterogeneity in the genotypes of this cytoplasmic infection. The Wolbachia genotype wMel, detected in all the populations studied, was the most abundant. The genotype wMelCS2 was always present in the populations from Middle Asia and Altai and was among the rare variants in the D. melanogaster populations from the Eastern Europe. Single instances of the Wolbachia genotype wMelCS occurred in a few flies from the Central Asian and Altai populations, but was not found this genotype in the other regions.

[Increase in the level of proline and osmotic pressure of cytoplasm in transformed tobacco bearing an antisense suppressor of the proline dehydrogenase gene]. / Povyshenie soderzhaniia prolina i osmoticheskogo davleniia kletochnogo soka u transformantov tabaka, nesushchikh antismyslovoi supressor gena prolindegidrogenazy.

The antisense suppressor was constructed for proline dehydrogenase gene (PDH; a fragment of PDH from Arabidopsis in antisense orientation and under the control of 35S promoter of cauliflower mosaic virus, CMV). In Nicotiana tabacum SR1 tobacco transformants bearing antisense suppressor for PDH, the proline content and the cytoplasm osmotic pressure were increased. The proline content in these transformants varied, whereas cytoplasm osmotic pressure was stable, which seems to reflect complicated relationships between these characteristics of the plant cell.