Perplexing dynamics of Wolbachia proteins for cytoplasmic incompatibility

Toshiyuki Harumoto; Takema Fukatsu

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3001644

Perplexing dynamics of Wolbachia proteins for cytoplasmic incompatibility

PLoS Biol. 2022 May 25;20(5):e3001644. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001644. eCollection 2022 May.

Authors

Toshiyuki Harumoto^{1

2}, Takema Fukatsu^{3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Hakubi Center for Advanced Research, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
² Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
³ Bioproduction Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan.
⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
⁵ Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan.

Abstract

The mechanism of symbiont-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) has been a long-standing mystery. A new study on Wolbachia's Cif proteins in PLOS Biology provides supportive evidence for the "Host modification model," although the alternative "Toxin-antidote model" is still in the running.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Cytoplasm
Cytosol
Humans
Male
Prophages
Spermatozoa
Wolbachia*

Grants and funding

The authors acknowledge support from the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), the Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) grant (JPMJER1902) to T.F. and T.H., the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas grant (JP17H06388) to T.F., and the Hakubi Project of Kyoto University to T.H. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.