The Drosophila paulistorum Endosymbiont in an Alternative Species

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Abstract
Drosophila paulistorum consists of six semispecies that are the intracellular, cytoplasmic hosts for cell-wall-deficient microorganisms (streptococcal L-forms). Drosophila pavlovskiana is its uninfected sibling species, which can be crossed with D. paulistorum with difficulty. Parental types and hybrids resulting from crosses of these drosophilids were subjected to ultrastructural analyses via transmission-electron microscopy for the presence of endosymbionts. Drosophila paulistorum has naturally infected, but functional, gonads. In contrast, D. pavlovskiana has normal, symbiont-free gonads. The absence of endosymbionts in D. pavlovskiana correlates well with the lack of infectivity shown by the genetic crosses. The F1 generation consisted of fertile daughters, but sterile, hybrid sons, burdened by excessive microbial growth in their testes and retarded spermatogenesis. These results were coupled with a wholly negative survey of D. pavlovskiana for infectivity under microbial protocols producing positive results for D. paulistorum.

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