Characteristics of the Drosophila paulistorum Male Sterility Agent in a Secondary Host, Ephestia kuehniella.

Crosses among the six semispecies of Drosophila paulistorum produce sterile male hybrids. This sterility is caused by an agent which has characteristics of a microorganism. It is pathogenic in a secondary host, the larvae of the Mediterranean meal moth, Ephestia kuehniella, and can be serially passaged in Ephestia, where it is lethal. The agent was passaged back into D. paulistorum, where it induced sterility in males of a semispecies different from that of origin of the agent. Infectious particles were obtained from an extract of infected Ephestia by ultracentrifugation in a sucrose-Ficoll-metrizamide gradient. Both crude and purified extracts were lyophilized and stored indefinitely without loss of killing power. The agent was destroyed by low pH, lipid solvents, ultraviolet light, and exposure to a temperature of 56 degrees C for 30 min. It appeared to be sensitive to tetracycline and insensitive to penicillin, suggesting that the agent is not a virus, but more likely a cell wall-deficient bacterium or mycoplasma-like organism.