Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, People's Republic of China; College of Forestry, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, People's Republic of China.
College of Life Sciences, Yangtze University, Jingmi Road 266, Jingzhou 434025, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China.
Pestic Biochem Physiol. 2022 Jul;185:105120. doi: 10.1016/j.pestbp.2022.105120. Epub 2022 May 14.
Termites are often exposed to a variety of pathogens during their life cycle, which has led to the development of an innate immune system to resist these pathogens. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) play a crucial role in the innate immune system in insects. However, clear information on AMPs in termites has not been obtained. Therefore, exploring the function of AMPs in the subterranean termite Odontotermes formosanus (Shiraki) can lead to the development of novel termite control strategies that integrate RNA interference (RNAi) and pathogens. Here we first obtained two Oftermicins from O. formosanus and observed that the expression of these Oftermicin genes was significantly upregulated at the mRNA level after treatment with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or Serratia marcescens Bizio (SM1). Interestingly, the expression of these Oftermicins increased not only in the donor termites but also in the recipient termites through transmission experiments. Bioassay experiments showed that the mortality of O. formosanus treated with SM1 after RNAi was significantly higher than that of other groups. In summary, dsOftermicins are important immunosuppressants for termite control and Oftermicins are optimal targets for termite control based on the combined use of RNAi and pathogens.
白蚁在其生命周期中经常接触到各种病原体，这导致了它们发展出一种先天免疫系统来抵抗这些病原体。抗菌肽（AMPs）在昆虫的先天免疫系统中起着至关重要的作用。然而，关于白蚁中 AMPs 的明确信息尚未获得。因此，探索 AMPs 在地下白蚁 Odontotermes formosanus（Shiraki）中的功能可以导致开发出整合 RNA 干扰（RNAi）和病原体的新型白蚁控制策略。在这里，我们首次从 O. formosanus 中获得了两种 Oftermicin，并观察到这些 Oftermicin 基因的表达在 LPS 或粘质沙雷氏菌 Bizio（SM1）处理后在 mRNA 水平上显著上调。有趣的是，通过传播实验，这些 Oftermicin 的表达不仅在供体白蚁中增加，而且在受体白蚁中也增加。生物测定实验表明，经 SM1 处理后经 RNAi 的 O. formosanus 的死亡率明显高于其他组。总之，dsOftermicin 是白蚁控制的重要免疫抑制剂，而 Oftermicin 是基于 RNAi 和病原体联合使用的最佳白蚁控制靶标。
