Transcriptional response of Musca domestica larvae to bacterial infection

Ting Tang; Xiang Li; Xue Yang; Xue Yu; Jianhui Wang; Fengsong Liu; Dawei Huang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0104867

Transcriptional response of Musca domestica larvae to bacterial infection

PLoS One. 2014 Aug 19;9(8):e104867. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104867. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Ting Tang¹, Xiang Li¹, Xue Yang¹, Xue Yu¹, Jianhui Wang², Fengsong Liu¹, Dawei Huang³

Affiliations

¹ College of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Baoding, China.
² Department of Pathology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
³ College of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Baoding, China; Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Abstract

The house fly Musca domestica, a cosmopolitan dipteran insect, is a significant vector for human and animal bacterial pathogens, but little is known about its immune response to these pathogens. To address this issue, we inoculated the larvae with a mixture of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus and profiled the transcriptome 6, 24, and 48 h thereafter. Many genes known to controlling innate immunity in insects were induced following infection, including genes encoding pattern recognition proteins (PGRPs), various components of the Toll and IMD signaling pathways and of the proPO-activating and redox systems, and multiple antimicrobial peptides. Interestingly, we also uncovered a large set of novel immune response genes including two broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptides (muscin and domesticin), which might have evolved to adapt to house-fly's unique ecological environments. Finally, genes mediating oxidative phosphorylation were repressed at 48 h post-infection, suggesting disruption of energy homeostasis and mitochondrial function at the late stages of infection. Collectively, our data reveal dynamic changes in gene expression following bacterial infection in the house fly, paving the way for future in-depth analysis of M. domestica's immune system.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / genetics
Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / immunology
Antioxidants / metabolism
Base Sequence
Escherichia coli / pathogenicity
Escherichia coli / physiology
Gene Expression Profiling
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial*
Host-Pathogen Interactions / genetics*
Host-Pathogen Interactions / immunology
Houseflies / genetics*
Houseflies / immunology
Houseflies / microbiology
Immunity, Innate / genetics*
Insect Proteins / genetics*
Insect Proteins / immunology
Larva / genetics
Larva / immunology
Larva / microbiology
Molecular Sequence Annotation
Molecular Sequence Data
Oxidative Phosphorylation
Receptors, Pattern Recognition / genetics
Receptors, Pattern Recognition / immunology
Staphylococcus aureus / pathogenicity
Staphylococcus aureus / physiology
Transcriptome*

Substances

Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides
Antioxidants
Insect Proteins
Receptors, Pattern Recognition

Associated data

GENBANK/GBAB01000000

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (31101669, 31301925), Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (No. 20101301120005), and Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (No. C2011201027). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.