Poster Presentation 23rd International Society of Magnetic Resonance Conference 2023

NMR-based metabolomics to determine the interaction between Drosophila C virus and Wolbachia in Drosophila melanogaster. (#244)

Sarah Walsh 1 2 , Tyson Thomson 3 , Jeremy Brownlie 1 4 5 , Karyn Johnson 3 , Horst Joachim Schirra 1 2 6
  1. School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  2. Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  3. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland , Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  4. Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  5. Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  6. Centre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Wolbachia pipientis, provides a profound antiviral effect in Drosophila melanogaster. Interestingly, little is known about the mechanism behind this endosymbiont's conferred antiviral protection. Previous studies have indicated resource competition as a potential mechanism by which Wolbachia interferes with viral replication by scavenging the available host resources that would otherwise assist viral proliferation. In this study, we intend to determine the metabolic profile of wMel-infected D. melanogaster in response to Drosophila C virus (DCV). We intend to discern the points of metabolic competition between DCV and wMel within the biological system of D. melanogaster and resolve metabolite abundance that functionally disrupts viral accumulation. This study will use Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)-based metabolomics to elucidate the metabolites present in cohorts of coinfected D. melanogaster and DCV single infections. We believe this systems biology approach will clearly show the metabolic competition between DCV and wMel within D. melanogaster.