ANALYSIS OF WOLBACHIA PROTEIN-SYNTHESIS IN DROSOPHILA IN-VIVO

Intracellular Wolbachia infections are extremely common in arthropods and exert profound control over the reproductive biology of the host. However, very little Is known about the underlying molecular mechanism s which mediate these interactions with the host. We examined protein synthesis by Wolbachia in a Drosophila host in vivo by selective metab olic labelling of prokaryotic proteins and subsequent analysis by 1D a nd 2D gel electrophoresis. Using this method we could identify the maj or proteins synthesized by Wolbachia in ovaries and testes of flies. O f these proteins the most abundant was of low molecular weight and sho wed size variation between Wolbachia strains which correlated with the reproductive phenotype they generated in flies. Using the gel systems we employed it was not possible to identify any proteins of Wolbachia origin in the mature sperm cells of infected flies.