Department of Entomology, Minnie Bell Heep Center, Texas A&M University, Suite 412 2475 TAMU, 370 Olsen Blvd, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Genes (Basel). 2023 Jan 10;14(1):188. doi: 10.3390/genes14010188.
The red imported fire ant Buren (fire ant hereafter) is a global pest that inflicts billions of dollars in damages to the United States economy and poses a major threat on a global scale. Concerns with the broad-spectrum application of insecticides have facilitated the hunt for natural enemy-mediated controls. One of these, the virus virus-3 (SINV-3 hereafter) is exceptionally virulent in laboratory settings. However, despite high mortality rates in the laboratory and documented widespread SINV-3 prevalence in the southern United States, the fire ant remains a major pest. To explore this paradox, we document the immune response elicited by the fire ant when infected with SINV-3. We sequence the fire ant transcriptome prior to and following infection with SINV-3, and identify and discuss in detail genes in immune response pathways differentially expressed following infection with SINV-3. This information provides insights into genes and pathways involved in the SINV-3 infection response in the fire ant and offers avenues to pursue, to suppress key immune response genes and force the fire ant to succumb to SINV-3 infection in the field.
红火蚁（红火蚁以下简称）是一种全球性害虫，给美国经济造成数十亿美元的损失，并在全球范围内构成重大威胁。人们对杀虫剂的广谱应用感到担忧，这促使人们寻找以自然天敌为媒介的控制方法。其中一种方法是病毒 3（SINV-3 以下简称）在实验室环境中具有极高的毒力。然而，尽管实验室中的死亡率很高，并且有记录表明在美国南部广泛存在 SINV-3，但红火蚁仍然是一种主要害虫。为了探讨这一矛盾，我们记录了红火蚁感染 SINV-3 时引发的免疫反应。我们在感染 SINV-3 之前和之后对红火蚁的转录组进行了测序，并详细识别和讨论了感染 SINV-3 后差异表达的免疫反应途径中的基因。这些信息为了解红火蚁感染 SINV-3 时的基因和途径提供了线索，并为抑制关键免疫反应基因提供了途径，以便在野外迫使红火蚁屈服于 SINV-3 感染。
