TmSpz6 Is Essential for Regulating the Immune Response to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus Infection in Tenebrio molitor

Insects

YongHun Jo¹  Maryam Keshavarz¹  YoungMin Bae¹  DongHyun Kim¹  YeonSoo Han¹  TarikuTesfaye Edosa¹  YongSeok Lee² 

[1] Department of Applied Biology, Institute of Environmentally-Friendly Agriculture (IEFA), College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Korea;Department of Life Science and Biotechnology, College of Natural Sciences, Soonchunhyang University, Asan 31538, Korea;

关键词: antimicrobial peptides;    immune response;    mealworm;    spätzle;    toll pathway;   

DOI  :  10.3390/insects11020105

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Spätzle is an extracellular protein that activates the Toll receptor during embryogenesis and immune responses in Drosophila. However, the functions of the spätzle proteins in the innate immune response against bacteria or fungi in T. molitor are not well understood. Therefore, in this study, the open reading frame (ORF) of TmSpz6 was identified and its function in the response to bacterial and fungal infections in T. molitor was investigated using RNAi. The highest expression of TmSpz6 was in prepupae, and 3- and 6-day-old pupae, while remarkable expression was also observed in other stages. The tissue-specific expression analysis showed that TmSpz6 expression was highest in the hemocytes of larvae. TmSpz6 expression was highly induced when challenged with Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, or Candida albicans at 6 h post-injection; however, TmSpz6-silenced larvae were significantly more susceptible to only E. coli and S. aureus infection. The antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) gene expression analysis results show that TmSpz6 mainly positively regulated the expression of TmTencin-2 and -3 in response to E. coli and S. aureus infection. Collectively, these results suggest that TmSpz6 plays an important role in regulating AMP expression and increases the survival of T. molitor against E. coli and S. aureus.

【 授权许可】

Unknown