RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Wolbachia confers sex-specific resistance and tolerance to enteric but not systemic bacterial infection in Drosophila JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 045757 DO 10.1101/045757 A1 Radhakrishnan B. Vasanthakrishnan A1 Gupta Vanika A1 Jonathon Siva-Jothy A1 Katy M. Monteith A1 Sam P. Brown A1 Pedro F. Vale YR 2016 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/04/04/045757.abstract AB Wolbachia-mediatedprotection against viral infection has been extensively demonstrated in Drosophila and in mosquitoes that are artificially inoculatedwith D. melanogaster Wolbachia (wMel), but to date no evidence for Wolbachia-mediated antibacterial protection has been demonstrated in Drosophila.Here we show that D. melanogaster carrying wMel shows reduced mortality during enteric – but not systemic - infection with the opportunist pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and that protection is more pronounced in male flies. Wolbachia-mediated protection is associated with increased early expression of the antimicrobial peptide attacinA, followed by increased expression of a ROS detoxification gene (gstD8), and other tissue damage repair genes which together contribute to greater host resistance and disease tolerance. These results highlight that the route of infection is important for symbiont-mediated protection from infection, that Wolbachia can protect hosts by eliciting a combination of resistance and disease tolerance mechanisms, and that these effects are sexually dimorphic.