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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Comparative Immunology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1565964
Characterization of temporal expression of immune genes in female locust challenged by fungal pathogen, Aspergillus spp
Provisionally accepted- Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, China
The innate immune system provides defense against invading pathogens in insects and mammals. We conducted transcriptomic analyses of the locust Locusta migratoria under Aspergillus oryzae infection to clarify temporal variation in its molecular immune response. We found that fat body cells and hemocytes play different roles in the immune response of locusts to Aspergillus infection at different time points after inoculation, and melanization was the main process underlying the immune response of female locusts. Most pattern recognition receptors (PRR) genes were up-regulated in fat body cells and down-regulated in hemocytes from 24 h to 72 h after inoculation. This means that fat body cells, but not hemocytes, would be able to precisely recognize invading pathogens. Most serine protease inhibitors (SERPINs) genes and clip domain serine proteinase genes(CLIPs) genes were up-regulated in fat body cells. However, most SERPINs were down-regulated in hemocytes, which indicated that serine proteinases may be inhibited to activate downstream reactions involving the prophenoloxidase (PPO), peroxidase (POD), and Toll pathways. Most lysozymes, PPOs, and peroxiredoxin (PRDX) are effectors that were up-regulated in fat body cells 24 h after inoculation but down-regulated 48 h and 72 h after inoculation. Similar patterns were observed for effectors in hemocytes, which indicates that locust immune genesity expression was suppressed by A. oryzae 72 h after inoculation, might result in the melanization of locusts in response to Aspergillus infection was weakened. Our findings enhance our understanding of insect–fungi interactions and will aid studies of the innate humoral immune response to aspergillosis in humans, as well as have implications for the development of more effective microbial control strategies for the management of locust populations.
Keywords: innate immune, Immune genes, Temporal expression patterns, female locust (Locusta migratoria), Infection, fungal pathogen (Aspergillus oryzae)
Received: 24 Jan 2025; Accepted: 31 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Waqas, Xu, Zhang, Guo, Hu, You and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yinwei You, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, China
Long Zhang, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, China
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