2024-03-29T07:55:40Z
https://nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp/oai
oai:nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp:00030069
2023-01-16T04:23:17Z
643:666:667
Benzoquinone synthesis-related genes of Tribolium castaneum confer the robust antifungal host defense to the adult beetles through the inhibition of conidial germination on the body surface
Sawada, Mitsuki
99165
Sano, Takuma
99166
Hanakawa, Kento
99167
Sirasoonthorn, Patchara
99168
Oi, Takao
99169
Miura, Ken
99170
Tribolium castaneum
Immunity
Entomopathogenic fungus
Benzoquinone
Scanning electron microscopy
Insects fight against invading microbial pathogens through various immune-related measures that comprise ‘internal’, ‘external’ as well as ‘social’ immunities. The defenses by external immunity associated with the cuticular integument are supposed to be of particular importance in repelling entomopathogenic fungi that infect host insects transcutaneously. Among such integument-related defenses, external secretions of benzoquinone derivatives typical of tenebrionid beetles have been suggested to play important roles in the antimicrobial defenses. In the present study, by utilizing the experimental infection system composed of the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum and generalist ascomycete entomopathogens Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae, we performed the functional assays of the three T. castaneum genes whose involvement in benzoquinone synthesis in the adults has been reported, namely GT39, GT62 and GT63. Observations by scanning electron microcopy (SEM) revealed that the conidia of the two fungal species did not germinate on the wild-type adult body surface but did on the pupae. The expression analyses demonstrated that the levels of GT39 and GT62 mRNA increased from middle pupae and reached high in early adults while GT63 did not show a clear adult-biased expression pattern. The RNA interference-based knockdown of any of the three genes in pupae resulted in the adults compromised to the infection of the both fungal species. SEM observations revealed that the gene silencing allowed the conidial germination on the body surface of the knockdown beetles, thereby impairing the robust antifungal defense of adult beetles. Thus, we have provided direct experimental evidence for the functional importance in vivo of these benzoquinone synthesis-related genes that support the antifungal defense of tenebrionid beetles.
ファイル公開:2021-01-01
journal article
Elsevier
2020-01
application/pdf
Journal of Invertebrate Pathology
169
107298
0022-2011
https://nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/30069/files/JIP_2019_242_Revision 1_V0.pdf
eng
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jip.2019.107298
© 2020. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/