Jiang Liang
State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Biological Science Research Center, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Front Immunol. 2021 Feb 11;12:639092. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.639092. eCollection 2021.
The lepidopteran model silkworm, , is an important economic insect. Viruses cause serious economic losses in sericulture; thus, the economic importance of these viruses heightens the need to understand the antiviral pathways of silkworm to develop antiviral strategies. Insect innate immunity pathways play a critical role in the outcome of infection. The RNA interference (RNAi), NF-kB-mediated, immune deficiency (Imd), and stimulator of interferon gene (STING) pathways, and Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT) pathway are the major antiviral defense mechanisms, and these have been shown to play important roles in the antiviral immunity of silkworms. In contrast, viruses can modulate the prophenol oxidase (PPO), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt), and the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathways of the host to elevate their proliferation in silkworms. In this review, we present an overview of the current understanding of the main immune pathways in response to viruses and the signaling pathways modulated by viruses in silkworms. Elucidation of these pathways involved in the antiviral mechanism of silkworms furnishes a theoretical basis for the enhancement of virus resistance in economic insects, such as upregulating antiviral immune pathways through transgenic overexpression, RNAi of virus genes, and targeting these virus-modulated pathways by gene editing or inhibitors.
鳞翅目模式昆虫家蚕是一种重要的经济昆虫。病毒在养蚕业中会造成严重的经济损失；因此，这些病毒的经济重要性凸显了了解家蚕抗病毒途径以制定抗病毒策略的必要性。昆虫先天免疫途径在感染结果中起着关键作用。RNA干扰（RNAi）、核因子κB介导的免疫缺陷（Imd）、干扰素基因刺激物（STING）途径以及Janus激酶/信号转导子和转录激活子（JAK/STAT）途径是主要的抗病毒防御机制，并且已证明它们在家蚕的抗病毒免疫中发挥重要作用。相反，病毒可以调节宿主的前酚氧化酶（PPO）、磷脂酰肌醇3激酶（PI3K）/蛋白激酶B（Akt）以及细胞外信号调节激酶（ERK）信号通路，以提高其在家蚕中的增殖。在本综述中，我们概述了目前对家蚕中响应病毒的主要免疫途径以及病毒调节的信号通路的理解。阐明这些参与家蚕抗病毒机制的途径为提高经济昆虫的病毒抗性提供了理论基础，例如通过转基因过表达上调抗病毒免疫途径、对病毒基因进行RNA干扰以及通过基因编辑或抑制剂靶向这些病毒调节的途径。
