A gene associated with social immunity in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides

Proceedings. Biological Sciences
William J PalmerFrancis M Jiggins

Abstract

Some group-living species exhibit social immunity, where the immune response of one individual can protect others in the group from infection. In burying beetles, this is part of parental care. Larvae feed on vertebrate carcasses which their parents smear with exudates that inhibit microbial growth. We have sequenced the transcriptome of the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides and identified six genes that encode lysozymes-a type of antimicrobial enzyme that has previously been implicated in social immunity in burying beetles. When females start breeding and producing antimicrobial anal exudates, we found that the expression of one of these genes was increased by approximately 1000 times to become one of the most abundant transcripts in the transcriptome. Females varied considerably in the antimicrobial properties of their anal exudates, and this was strongly correlated with the expression of this lysozyme. We conclude that we have likely identified a gene encoding a key effector molecule in social immunity and that it was recruited during evolution from a function in personal immunity.

Associated Datasets

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Citations

Aug 27, 2016·Molecular Ecology·Stephen H Montgomery, Judith E Mank
Oct 14, 2016·Scientific Reports·Ornela De GasperinRebecca M Kilner
May 10, 2017·Nature Communications·Heiko VogelAndreas Vilcinskas
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Jul 11, 2018·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Jos Kramer, Joël Meunier
Oct 17, 2018·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Shantanu P ShuklaHeiko Vogel
Jul 7, 2017·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Ana DuarteRebecca M Kilner
Jul 6, 2018·Journal of Chemical Ecology·Sandra Steiger, Johannes Stökl
Oct 4, 2018·Frontiers in Zoology·Alexandra Capodeanu-NäglerSandra Steiger
Oct 25, 2017·Scientific Reports·Ana DuarteRebecca M Kilner
Feb 23, 2021·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·Paula H MarjamäkiAlastair J Wilson

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
RNA-seq
PCR

Software Mentioned

run
DE
Dryad
R package MCMCglmm
EdgeR
MAAFT
Trinity
R package lsmeans
Batch Conserved Domain Search
GBLOCKS

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