Functional studies on transcriptone profiles of Drosophila larvae infected by entomopathogenic nematodes
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| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) Heterorhabditis bacteriophora are parasitic worms, which are associated with their gut symbiotic bacteria Photorhabdus luminescens. They are generally lethal to insects and used as biocontrol agents. Nematodes can enter to the host via the mouth, anus, spiracles or penetrating through the cuticle. Once they entered into host, they release their gut bacteria and then work in concert with the bacteria to kill the host. Nematode infection in Drosophila is a natural infection, in contrast to many kinds of bacterial infection (through injection). Drosophila lacks an adaptive immune system of the vertebrate style and therefore relies on innate immunity to combat infection against different invaders like bacteria, fungi, viruses and other parasites. Until now, our knowledge on Drosophila immunity mostly comes from studies of bacterial and fungal infections. To obtain a complete picture of Drosophila response to EPN, we performed a genome-wide transcriptional analysis of the Drosophila larvae (approximately 88 hour after egg laying) infected by EPN. We compared the transcriptome profile between infected and non-infected larvae. A total of 642 transcripts were found significantly differentially regulated upon nematode infection. Gene ontology (GO) analysis of the top 100 most significantly upregulated genes identified one-quarter immune-related genes. To test their contribution to the response against nematodes, we used RNAi lines and mutants for candidate genes identified in the arrays and examined the viability of such larvae upon EPN infection. As a criterion for selecting candidate defense genes from the list of induced transcripts we focused on those for which a function in immunity had been established in other infection models, as well as on their paralogs, which had not yet been implicated in immune reactions. |
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