Wolbachia infection modifies the profile, shuttling and structure of microRNAs in a mosquito cell line

Jaime G Mayoral; Kayvan Etebari; Mazhar Hussain; Alexander A Khromykh; Sassan Asgari

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0096107

Wolbachia infection modifies the profile, shuttling and structure of microRNAs in a mosquito cell line

PLoS One. 2014 Apr 23;9(4):e96107. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0096107. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Jaime G Mayoral¹, Kayvan Etebari¹, Mazhar Hussain¹, Alexander A Khromykh², Sassan Asgari¹

Affiliations

¹ Australian Infectious Disease Research Centre, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
² Australian Infectious Disease Research Centre, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that play important roles in many biological processes such as development, cell signaling and immune response. Small RNA deep sequencing technology provided an opportunity for a thorough survey of the miRNA profile of a mosquito cell line from Aedes aegypti. We characterized the miRNA composition of the nucleus and the cytoplasm of uninfected cells and compared it with the one of cells infected with the endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia strain wMelPop-CLA. We found an overall increase of small RNAs between 18 and 28 nucleotides in both cellular compartments in Wolbachia-infected cells and identified specific miRNAs induced and/or suppressed by the Wolbachia infection. We discuss the mechanisms that the cell may use to shuttle miRNAs between the cytoplasm and the nucleus. In addition, we identified piRNAs that changed their abundance in response to Wolbachia infection. The miRNAs and piRNAs identified in this study provide promising leads for investigations into the host-endosymbiont interactions and for better understanding of how Wolbachia manipulates the host miRNA machinery in order to facilitate its persistent replication in infected cells.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aedes / genetics*
Aedes / microbiology*
Animals
Argonaute Proteins / genetics
Cell Line
Cell Nucleus / genetics*
Cytoplasm / genetics*
Gene Expression Regulation
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
Host-Pathogen Interactions
Insect Proteins / genetics
MicroRNAs / chemistry
MicroRNAs / genetics*
Molecular Sequence Data
RNA Transport
Wolbachia / physiology*

Substances

Argonaute Proteins
Insect Proteins
MicroRNAs

Associated data

GEO/GSE55210

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/) project grant APP1062983 (to S.A. and A.A.K.) and the Australian Research Council (www.arc.gov.au) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award fellowship DE120101512 (to M.H.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.