Gene expression profiling of the whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) Middle East - Asia Minor 1 feeding on healthy and Tomato yellow leaf curl China virus-infected tobacco

Abstract

Begomoviruses are exclusively transmitted by whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) in a circulative, non-propagative manner. The influences of begomoviruses on whitefly vector are complex with both direct and indirect effects. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects are poorly understood and the transcriptional profiles of whitefly on healthy and virus-infected plants have not yet been studied. Using suppression subtractive hybridization, we investigated the differentially expressed genes in whitefly Middle East – Asia Minor 1 feeding on healthy and Tomato yellow leaf curl China virus (TYLCCNV) infected tobacco. From the forward cDNA library, 124 differentially expressed expression sequence tags (ESTs) were obtained which represent up-regulated genes in the whiteflies feeding on the infected tobacco. From the reverse library, 112 ESTs were isolated which represent down-regulated genes. Among the up-regulated genes, we identified several genes that are probably involved in direct interaction between whitefly and TYLCCNV, including a 26/29-kDa proteinase that appears to participate in the elimination of foreign proteins, heparan sulfate proteoglycan which mediates the entry of several viruses into host cells and two genes of Rickettsia-a secondary endosymbiotic bacterium of whitefly. In addition, we identified a number of genes involved in metabolism, transcription and translation which might be the result of indirect effects of TYLCCNV on the whitefly via host plants. Collectively, our results suggest that TYLCCNV-infected tobacco changes the gene expression profiles of whitefly via both direct and indirect interactions. This study revealed a number of genes involved in whitefly-TYLCCNV-tobacco interactions and provided useful information for future study on this complex system.