ikbal Agah iNCE

With the absence of effective prophylactic vaccines and drugs against African trypanosomosis, control of this group of zoonotic neglected tropical diseases depends the control of the tsetse fly vector. When applied in an area-wide insect pest management approach, the sterile insect technique (SIT) is effective in eliminating single tsetse species from isolated populations. The need to enhance the effectiveness of SIT led to the concept of investigating tsetse-trypanosome interactions by a consortium of researchers in a five-year (2013–2018) Coordinated Research Project (CRP) organized by the Joint Division of FAO/IAEA. The goal of this CRP was to elucidate tsetse-symbiome-pathogen molecular interactions to improve SIT and SIT-compatible interventions for trypanosomoses control by enhancing vector refractoriness. This would allow extension of SIT into areas with potential disease transmission. This paper highlights the CRP's major achievements and discusses the science-based perspectives for successful mitigation or eradication of African trypanosomosis.

The Glossina pallidipes salivary gland hypertrophy virus (GpSGHV) infects tsetse flies predominantly asymptomatically and occasionally symptomatically. Symptomatic infections are characterized by overt salivary gland hypertrophy (SGH) in mass reared tsetse flies, which causes reproductive dysfunctions and colony collapse, thus hindering tsetse control via sterile insect technique (SIT). Asymptomatic infections have no apparent cost to the fly's fitness. Here, small RNAs were sequenced and profiles in asymptomatically and symptomatically infected G. pallidipes flies determined. Thirty-eight host-encoded microRNAs (miRNAs) were present in both the asymptomatic and symptomatic fly profiles, while nine host miRNAs were expressed specifically in asymptomatic flies versus 10 in symptomatic flies. Of the shared 38 miRNAs, 15 were differentially expressed when comparing asymptomatic with symptomatic flies. The most up-regulated host miRNAs in symptomatic flies was predicted to target immune-related mRNAs of the host. Six GpSGHV-encoded miRNAs were identified, of which five of them were only in symptomatic flies. These virus-encoded miRNAs may not only target host immune genes but may also participate in viral immune evasion. This evidence of differential host miRNA profile in Glossina in symptomatic flies advances our understanding of the GpSGHV-Glossina interactions and provides potential new avenues, for instance by utilization of particular miRNA inhibitors or mimics to better manage GpSGHV infections in tsetse mass-rearing facilities, a prerequisite for successful SIT implementation.

A Gram positive, rod shaped, facultatively oligotrophic bacterial strain, designated MB18T, was isolated from a water sample collected from River Mahananda at Siliguri (26°44'23.20"N, 88°25'22.89"E), West Bengal, India. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, the closest relative of this strain was Brevibacterium epidermidis NCDO 2286T (96% similarity). The DNA G+C content of strain MB18T was 64.6 mol%. Chemotaxonomic data [Mk-8(H2) as major major menaquinone, galac-tose as sole cell wall sugar, meso-diaminopimelic acid as diagnostic cell wall diamino acid, phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG) as constituents of polar lipids, anteiso-C15: 0 , anteiso-C17: 0 and iso-C15:0 as the major fatty acids] supported the affiliation of strain MB18T to the genus Brevibacterium. The results of DNA G + C content, 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, biochemical and physiological analyses allowed genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain MB18T from its nearest neighbour B. epidermidis. The isolate, therefore represents a new species, for which the name Brevibacterium siliguriense sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain is MB18T (=DSM 23676T = LMG 25772T).

Glossina pallidipes salivary gland hypertrophy virus (GpSGHV; family Hytrosaviridae) is a dsDNA virus exclusively pathogenic to tsetse flies (Diptera; Glossinidae). The 190 kb GpSGHV genome contains 160 open reading frames and encodes more than 60 confirmed proteins. The asymptomatic GpSGHV infection in flies can convert to symptomatic infection that is characterized by overt salivary gland hypertrophy (SGH). Flies with SGH show reduced general fitness and reproductive dysfunction. Although the occurrence of SGH is an exception rather than the rule, G. pallidipes is thought to be the most susceptible to expression of overt SGH symptoms compared to other Glossina species that are largely asymptomatic. Although Glossina salivary glands (SGs) play an essential role in GpSGHV transmission, the functions of the salivary components during the virus infection are poorly understood. In this study, we used mass spectrometry to study SG proteomes of G. pallidipes and G. m. morsitans, two Glossina model species that exhibit differential GpSGHV pathologies (high and low incidence of SGH, respectively). A total of 540 host proteins were identified, of which 23 and 9 proteins were significantly up- and down-regulated, respectively, in G. pallidipes compared to G. m. morsitans. Whereas 58 GpSGHV proteins were detected in G. pallidipes F1 progenies, only 5 viral proteins were detected in G. m. morsitans. Unlike in G. pallidipes, qPCR assay did not show any significant increase in virus titers in G. m. morsitans F1 progenies, confirming that G. m. morsitans is less susceptible to GpSGHV infection and replication compared to G. pallidipes. Based on our results, we speculate that in the case of G. pallidipes, GpSGHV employs a repertoire of host intracellular signaling pathways for successful infection. In the case of G. m. morsitans, antiviral responses appeared to be dominant. These results are useful for designing additional tools to investigate the Glossina-GpSGHV interactions.

Invertebrate iridescent virus 6 (IIV-6) is a nucleocytoplasmic virus with a ~212 kb linear dsDNA genome that encodes 215 putative ORFs. The IIV-6 virion-associated proteins consist of at least 54 virally encoded proteins. One of our previous findings showed that most of these proteins are encoded by genes from the early transcriptional class. This indicated that these structural proteins may not only function in the formation of the virion, but also in the initial stage of viral infection. In the current study, we followed the protein expression profile of IIV-6 over time in Drosophila S2 cells by label-free quantification using a proteomic approach. A total of 95 virally encoded proteins were detected in infected cells, of which 37 were virion proteins. The expressed IIV-6 virion proteins could be categorized into three main clusters based on their expression profiles: proteins with stably low expression levels during infection, proteins with exponentially increasing expression levels during infection and proteins that were initially highly abundant, but showed slightly reduced levels after 48 h post-infection. We thus provided novel information on the kinetics of virion and infected cell-specific protein levels that assists in our understanding of gene regulation in this lesser-known DNA virus model.