Wang Hai-Zhen, Zhong Xin, Gu Li, Li Shao-Song, Zhang Gu-Ren, Liu Xin
Food and Health Engineering Research Center of the State Education Ministry, School of Life Science, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
State Key Laboratory for Biocontrol, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Arch Insect Biochem Physiol. 2019 Mar;100(3):e21553. doi: 10.1002/arch.21533. Epub 2019 Jan 17.
As a pest on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Gynaephora qinghaiensis causes severe damage to grassland vegetation and its pupae are also natural hosts of Thektogaster sp. To successfully parasitize, endoparasitoids generally introduce or secrete multiple parasitic factors into the host body during the spawning stage to suppress the host immune response. To study the parasitic effects of Thektogaster sp. on G. qinghaiensis, a transcriptome analysis of immune-related genes in parasitized and nonparasitized G. qinghaiensis pupae was performed. A total of 371,260,704 clean reads were assembled into 118,144 unigenes with an average length of 884.33 base pairs. Of these, 23,660 unigenes were annotated in at least one database and 94,484 unigenes were not annotated in any databases. These findings indicated that the majority of the genetic resources (79.97% of all unigenes) in Gynaephora should be further explored. Parasitization significantly affected the transcriptional profile of G. qinghaiensis pupae. The present study identified 12,322 differentially expressed genes and 57 immune-related genes were identified in parasitized G. qinghaiensis pupae. Most immune-related genes were downregulated, potentially resulting from the inhibitory effect of Thektogaster sp. on G. qinghaiensis pupae after parasitization. Overall, the transcriptome analysis sheds valuable light on the molecular mechanisms of G. qinghaiensis parasitization by Thektogaster sp. and promotes the development of novel biocontrol strategies for Gynaephora based on immune defense.
青海草原毛虫作为青藏高原上的一种害虫，对草原植被造成严重破坏，其蛹也是长尾小蜂属（Thektogaster sp.）的天然寄主。为了成功寄生，内寄生蜂通常在产卵阶段向寄主体内引入或分泌多种寄生因子，以抑制寄主的免疫反应。为了研究长尾小蜂属对青海草原毛虫的寄生作用，对被寄生和未被寄生的青海草原毛虫蛹中的免疫相关基因进行了转录组分析。总共371,260,704条clean reads被组装成118,144条单基因，平均长度为884.33个碱基对。其中，23,660条单基因在至少一个数据库中得到注释，94,484条单基因未在任何数据库中得到注释。这些发现表明，青海草原毛虫的大多数遗传资源（占所有单基因的79.97%）有待进一步探索。寄生显著影响了青海草原毛虫蛹的转录谱。本研究鉴定出12,322个差异表达基因，并在被寄生的青海草原毛虫蛹中鉴定出57个免疫相关基因。大多数免疫相关基因下调，这可能是长尾小蜂属在寄生后对青海草原毛虫蛹产生抑制作用的结果。总体而言，转录组分析为长尾小蜂属寄生青海草原毛虫的分子机制提供了有价值的见解，并促进了基于免疫防御的青海草原毛虫新型生物防治策略的开发。
