Abstract
The Helicoverpa zea transcriptome was analyzed 24 h after H. zea larvae fed on artificial diet laced with Helicoverpa zea single nucleopolyhedrovirus (HzSNPV). Significant differential regulation of 1,139 putative genes (p < 0.05 T-test with Benjamini and Hochberg False Discovery Rate) was detected in the gut epithelial tissue; where 63% of these genes were down-regulated and 37% of genes were up-regulated compared to the mock-infected control. Genes that play important roles in digestive physiology were noted as being generally down-regulated. Among these were aminopeptidases, trypsin-like serine proteases, lipases, esterases and serine proteases. Genes related to the immune response reacted in a complex nature having peptidoglycan binding and viral antigen recognition proteins and antiviral pathway systems down-regulated, whereas antimicrobial peptides and prophenoloxidase were up-regulated. In general, detoxification genes, specifically cytochrome P450 and glutathione S-transferase were down-regulated as a result of infection. This report offers the first comparative transcriptomic study of H. zea compared to HzSNPV infected H. zea and provides further groundwork that will lead to a larger understanding of transcriptional perturbations associated with viral infection and the host response to the viral insult in what is likely the most heavily infected tissue in the insect.
Highlights
Interactions between insects and the viruses that exploit them as part of their replicative cycle offer us among the oldest examples of infectious outcomes in the animal kingdom
The transcriptome of the gut epithelial tissue of H. zea infected per os with Helicoverpa zea single nucleopolyhedrovirus (HzSNPV) was analyzed by microarray 24 h post infection. 1,138 genes were significantly altered (p < 0.05) by baculovirus infection
The transcriptional profile of H. zea gut epithelial tissue was analyzed by DNA microarray 24 h following viral infection and compared to that of uninfected tissues
Summary
Interactions between insects and the viruses that exploit them as part of their replicative cycle offer us among the oldest examples of infectious outcomes in the animal kingdom. The study of baculoviruses has both offered us information regarding the insect response to infection, and an exploitable means of controlling populations of susceptible pest insects [4±8]. Polyhedra are exposed to the alkaline pH of the larval gut resulting in its dissolution and release of baculovirus virions [14]. The baculovirus replication cycle proceeds in a coordinated and temporal fashion, with transcription of immediate early genes, followed by early genes that promote and facilitate DNA replication, followed by late genes that give rise to proteins responsible for packaging daughter genomes in capsids, and those responsible for complete assembly, maturation and egress of the virus [14±16]. Microarray analysis, and more recently high-throughput RNA-seq approaches, offer us new means to examine the transcriptional responses of both the virus and host in non-model species, on a far more broad basis [20±27]. Down-regulation of specific genes, and we offer ontological analysis of groups of differentially regulated genes
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