Prophenoloxidase-Mediated Ex Vivo Immunity to Delay Fungal Infection after Insect Ecdysis.

ABSTRACT: Skin immunity protects animals from airborne pathogen infection. Unlike mammals, arthropods, including insects, undergo periodic ecdysis to grow and develop. Newly molted insects emerge with unsclerotized thin cuticles but successfully escape pathogenic infections during the post-molt period. Here we show that prophenoloxidases (PPOs) in molting fluids remain bioactive on the integument and impede fungal infection after ecdysis. We found that the purified plasma PPOs or recombinant PPOs could effectively bind to fungal spores (conidia) by targeting the cell wall components chitin and β-1,3-glucan. Pretreatment of the spores of the fungal pathogen Beauveria bassiana with PPOs increased spore hydrophilicity and reduced spore adhesion activity, resulting in a significant decrease in vi

SUBMITTER: Zhang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5671992 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature