RNAi-mediated gene silencing of Phlebotomus papatasi defensins favors Leishmania major infection

Frontiers in Physiology

Physiology

Barbora Vomáčková Kykalová¹  Fabiana Sassù¹  Petr Volf¹  Erich Loza Telleria² 

[1] Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechia;null;

关键词: sand fly;    innate immunity;    relish;    antimicrobial peptides;    knockdown;    leishmania;    defensin;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fphys.2023.1182141

 received in 2023-03-08, accepted in 2023-04-25,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Introduction: Production of different antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is one of the insect’s prominent defense strategies, regulated mainly by Toll and immune deficiency (IMD) humoral pathways. Here we focused mainly on two AMPs of Phlebotomus papatasi, vector of Leishmania major parasites, their association with the relish transcription factor and the effective participation on Leishmania infection.Methods and results: We further characterized the role of previously described gut-specific P. papatasi defensin (PpDef1) and identified the second defensin (PpDef2) expressed in various sand fly tissues. Using the RNAi-mediated gene silencing, we report that the silencing of PpDef1 gene or simultaneous silencing of both defensin genes (PpDef1 and PpDef2) resulted in increased parasite levels in the sand fly (detectable by PCR) and higher sand fly mortality. In addition, we knocked down relish, the sole transcription factor of the IMD pathway, to evaluate the association of the IMD pathway with AMPs expression in P. papatasi. We demonstrated that the relish gene knockdown reduced the expression of PpDef2 and attacin, another AMP abundantly expressed in the sand fly body.Conclusions: Altogether, our experiments show the importance of defensins in the sand fly response toward L. major and the role of the IMD pathway in regulating AMPs in P. papatasi.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Vomáčková Kykalová, Sassù, Volf and Telleria.