Effects of Sex-Ratio (SR)-Spiroplasma Infection on Drosophila Primary Embryonic Cultured Cells and on Embryogenesis(Cell and Molecular Biology)

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Effects of Sex-ratio(SR)-spiroplasma infection in Drosophila melanogaster were examined in two experiments, in vitro and in vivo. The NSRO strain of the SR-spiroplasmas, transovarially transmitted microorganisms causing male-specific lethality in embryos, was collected from adult female hemolymph and inoculated into primary embryonic cell cultures prepared 2 or 5 days earlier. Within 1-2 days necrotic cell masses were detected in some neuroblastic and fibroblastic cells, but no detectable changes were observed in muscle cells, nerve cells, or in cellular spheres under a phase-contrast microscope. Spiroplasma-like structures were observed most abundantly in intercellular spaces of necrotic cells under the electron microscope. Similar experiments with NSRO-A, a non-male killing variant derived from NSRO, produced no such necrotic changes in neuroblastic and fibroblastic cells. Effects of NSRO on embryogenesis were examined under electron microscopy on embryos produced from NSRO-infected mothers. In about one-half the cases (presumably males) of embryos, 7.5-8.5 hr after oviposition, extensive necrotic cell masses were observed at regular intervals along the ventral side. In the remaining one-half (presumably females) of the embryos and in embryos produced from non-infected mothers, necrotic cell masses at regular intervals were also observed, but in a very much reduced scale, representing most probably the normal programmed cell death.
1992-04-15