Biomaterial Database

Detection and Assessment of Wolbachia pipientis Infection. 2023

Lindsay B M Nevalainen, and Irene L G Newton

Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.

Wolbachia pipientis is a widespread vertically transmitted intracellular bacterium naturally present in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. As Wolbachia is present in a large number of Drosophila lines, it is critical for researchers to be able to identify which of their stocks maintain this infection to avoid any potential confounding variables. Here, we describe methods for detecting the bacterium and assessing the infection, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of DNA, multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) to identify strains, western blotting for protein detection, and immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) of Drosophila ovaries to visually detect Wolbachia by fluorescence microscopy.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D004330	Drosophila	A genus of small, two-winged flies containing approximately 900 described species. These organisms are the most extensively studied of all genera from the standpoint of genetics and cytology.	Fruit Fly, Drosophila,Drosophila Fruit Flies,Drosophila Fruit Fly,Drosophilas,Flies, Drosophila Fruit,Fly, Drosophila Fruit,Fruit Flies, Drosophila
D004331	Drosophila melanogaster	A species of fruit fly frequently used in genetics because of the large size of its chromosomes.	D. melanogaster,Drosophila melanogasters,melanogaster, Drosophila
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D017404	In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence	A type of IN SITU HYBRIDIZATION in which target sequences are stained with fluorescent dye so their location and size can be determined using fluorescence microscopy. This staining is sufficiently distinct that the hybridization signal can be seen both in metaphase spreads and in interphase nuclei.	FISH Technique,Fluorescent in Situ Hybridization,Hybridization in Situ, Fluorescence,FISH Technic,Hybridization in Situ, Fluorescent,In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescent,FISH Technics,FISH Techniques,Technic, FISH,Technics, FISH,Technique, FISH,Techniques, FISH
D058885	Multilocus Sequence Typing	Direct nucleotide sequencing of gene fragments from multiple housekeeping genes for the purpose of phylogenetic analysis, organism identification, and typing of species, strain, serovar, or other distinguishable phylogenetic level.	Multilocus Sequence Analysis,Analyses, Multilocus Sequence,Analysis, Multilocus Sequence,Multilocus Sequence Analyses,Sequence Analyses, Multilocus,Sequence Analysis, Multilocus,Sequence Typing, Multilocus,Typing, Multilocus Sequence
D020577	Wolbachia	A genus of bacteria which comprises a heterogenous group of gram-negative small rods and coccoid forms associated with arthropods. (From Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, vol 1, 1984)