Lavorgna, A. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2025

Experimental evidence of male-male interaction in laboratory swarms of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes

Mosquitoes mostly mate in the context of swarms: to facilitate encounters with females, males form disordered aggregations over a visual marker, which serves as a positional reference. Due to the scarcity of high-resolution data, it remains unclear whether swarms are the result of individuals interacting independently with the marker, or whether they are the expression of a genuine collective behavior produced by spontaneous interaction between individuals. Here, with a unique dataset comprising three-dimensional trajectories of 30 laboratory swarms of different size (ranging from 80 to 400 mosquitoes), we investigate swarming behavior of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes. With a statistical physics approach, we provide experimental evidence of an effective male-male interaction. We find that individual speed fluctuations are strongly correlated in space, meaning that mosquitoes in close proximity tend to display similar deviations from the group average, effectively flying at a similar speed. We prove that this correlation is not compatible with a random arrangement of individuals, indicating that an interaction process is at play.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2020

The E3/E4 ubiquitin conjugation factor UBE4B interacts with and ubiquitinates the HTLV-1 Tax oncoprotein to promote NF-kB activation

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the etiological agent of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL), and the neurological disease HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). The HTLV-1 Tax protein persistently activates the NF-{kappa}B pathway to enhance the proliferation and survival of HTLV-1 infected T cells. Lysine 63 (K63)-linked polyubiquitination of Tax provides an important regulatory mechanism that promotes Tax-mediated interaction with the IKK complex and activation of NF-{kappa}B; however, the host proteins regulating Tax ubiquitination are largely unknown. To identify novel Tax interacting proteins that may regulate its ubiquitination we conducted a yeast two-hybrid screen using Tax as bait. This screen yielded the E3/E4 ubiquitin conjugation factor UBE4B as a novel binding partner for Tax. Here, we confirmed the interaction between Tax and UBE4B in mammalian cells by co-immunoprecipitation assays and demonstrated colocalization by proximity ligation assay and confocal microscopy. Overexpression of UBE4B specifically enhanced Tax-induced NF-{kappa}B activation, whereas knockdown of UBE4B impaired Tax-induced NF-{kappa}B activation and the induction of NF-{kappa}B target genes in T cells and ATLL cell lines. Furthermore, depletion of UBE4B with shRNA resulted in apoptotic cell death and diminished the proliferation of ATLL cell lines. Finally, overexpression of UBE4B enhanced Tax polyubiquitination, and knockdown or CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout of UBE4B attenuated both K48- and K63-linked polyubiquitination of Tax. Collectively, these results implicate UBE4B in HTLV-1 Tax polyubiquitination and downstream NF-{kappa}B activation. Author SummaryInfection with the retrovirus HTLV-1 leads to the development of either CD4+CD25+ leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) or a demyelinating neuroinflammatory disease (HAM/TSP) in a subset of infected individuals. The HTLV-1 Tax protein is a regulatory protein which regulates viral gene expression and persistently activates cellular signaling pathways such as NF-{kappa}B to drive the clonal expansion and longevity of HTLV-1 infected CD4+ T cells. Polyubiquitination of Tax is a key mechanism of NF-{kappa}B activation by assembling and activating I{kappa}B kinase (IKK) signaling complexes; however, the host factors regulating Tax ubiquitination have remained elusive. Here, we have identified the E3/E4 ubiquitin conjugation factor UBE4B as a novel Tax binding protein that promotes both K48- and K63-linked polyubiquitination of Tax. Knockdown or knockout of UBE4B impairs Tax-induced NF-{kappa}B activation and triggers apoptosis of HTLV-1 transformed cells. Therefore, UBE4B is an integral host factor that supports HTLV-1 Tax polyubiquitination, NF-{kappa}B activation and cell survival.

microbiology↗