Oral Presentation AUS-oMicS 2025

Getting to know your roommate – NMR metabolomics as a tool to characterise the role of metabolism in symbiotic relationships (#12)

Horst Joachim Schirra 1 2 , Sarah Walsh 1 , Luke Husdell 1 2 , Denni Currin-Ross 3 , Jessica Broadway 1 , Eric Caragata 4 , Jeremy Brownlie 1
  1. Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, Australia
  2. Centre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia
  3. Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia
  4. University of Florida, Vero Beach, FL, USA

Model organisms, such as Drosophila melanogaster, are useful tools for uncovering fundamental biological processes in systems that are comparatively less complex than higher animals/humans. Here we discuss several examples of using NMR-based metabolomics as a key platform technology to exploring metabolic processes in host-symbiont interactions in insects, including Drosophila:

(1) Infection with the endosymbiont Wolbachia wMel depresses the insulin/insulin-like-growth factor cascade in Drosophila, whilst inducing the hypoxia signaling pathway. This causes ROS production and ROS adaptations, next to other metabolic changes that steer metabolism away from oxygen-intensive pathways and enable metabolite extraction by the symbiont and metabolite provisioning to the host. These responses signify a reprogramming of the host’s mitochondrial metabolism rather than an immune response.

(2) In contrast, infection with wMelPop in the mosquito Aedes aegypti triggers host immune responses, including melanogenesis and ROS production. wMelPop is more aggressive, while wMel is more likely to form stable inheritable infections.

(3) Wolbachia infection in Drosophila leads to the temporary suppression of viral infections. Understanding the basis for this effect is of great interest in the context of inhibiting the spread of insect-borne viral diseases. NMR-based metabolomics provides evidence for metabolic competition between the endosymbiont and the virus as the underlying basis for the inhibition of viral replication.

(4) Viral infection studies in Drosophila involve injecting the insect with the virus. Thus, the metabolic response to viral infection is confounded by a concurrent wounding/wound-healing response. We have studied the metabolic profile of this wounding/wound healing response and provide a basis for interpreting both processes in viral infection studies. We also show evidence of Wolbachia accelerating wound healing as well as providing viral protection.

These examples show the breadth and depth of insights into the role of metabolism in host-symbiont interactions that can be gained through model organisms in metabolomics/systems biology.