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Background  The heavy metal lead has been shown to be associated with a genotoxic risk.  Drosophila melanogaster  is a model organism commonly utilized in genetic toxicology testing. The endosymbionts —  Wolbachia  are now very common in both wild populations and laboratory stocks of  Drosophila .  Wolbachia  may induce resistance to pathogenic viruses, filarial nematodes and  Plasmodium  in fruit fly and mosquito hosts. However the effect of  Wolbachia  infection on the resistance of their hosts to heavy metal is unknown.    Methodology/Principal Findings  Manipulating the lead content in the diet of  Drosophila melanogaster , we found that lead consumption had no different effects on developmental time between  Wolbachia -infected (Dmel  w Mel) and –uninfected (Dmel T) flies. While in Pb-contaminated medium, significantly reduced amount of pupae and adults of Dmel  w Mel were emerged, and Dmel  w Mel adults had significantly shorter longevity than that of Dmel T flies. Lead infusion in diet resulted in significantly decreased superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in Dmel T flies (P<0.05), but not in Dmel  w Mel flies. Correspondingly, lead cultures induced a 10.8 fold increase in malonaldehyde (MDA) contents in Dmel T larvae (P<0.05). While in Dmel  w Mel larvae, it resulted in only a 1.3 fold increase. By quantitative RT-PCR, we showed that lead infused medium caused significantly increased expression level of  relish  and  CecA2  genes in Dmel T flies (P<0.01). Lead cultures did not change dramatically the expression of these genes in Dmel  w Mel flies.    Conclusions/Significance  These results suggest that  Wolbachia  infection decreased the resistance of  Drosophila  to lead likely by limiting the production of peroxides resulted from lead, thus being unable to activate the immunological pathway in the host to prevent them from lead damage. This represents a novel  Wolbachia –host interaction and provides information that researchers working on  Drosophila  toxicology should take in consideration the presence of  Wolbachia  in the stocks they are analyzing.

Wolbachia Infection Decreased the Resistance of Drosophila to Lead