Clip domain prophenoloxidase activating protease is required for Ostrinia furnacalis Guenée to defend against bacterial infection.

Developmental and Comparative Immunology
Cong-Jing FengTai Tang

Abstract

The prophenoloxidase (PPO) activating system in insects plays an important role in defense against microbial invasion. In this paper, we identified a PPO activating protease (designated OfPAP) containing a 1203 bp open reading frame encoding a 400-residue protein composed of two clip domains and a C-terminal serine protease domain from Ostrinia furnacalis. SignalP analysis revealed a putative signal peptide of 18 residues. The mature OfPAP was predicted to be 382 residues long with a calculated Mr of 44.8 kDa and pI of 6.66. Multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicated that OfPAP was orthologous to the PAPs in the other lepidopterans. A large increase of the transcript levels was observed in hemocytes at 4 h post injection (hpi) of killed Bacillus subtilis, whereas its level in integument increased continuously from 4 to 12 hpi in the challenged larvae and began to decline at 24 hpi. After OfPAP expression had been silenced, the median lethal time (LT50) of Escherichia coli-infected larvae (1.0 day) became significantly lower than that of E. coli-infected wild-type (3.0 days, p < 0.01). A 3.5-fold increase in E. coli colony forming units occurred in larval hemolymph of the OfPAP knockdown larvae, as compared ...Continue Reading

Citations

Jun 26, 2021·Developmental and Comparative Immunology·Xu-Na ZhuangDian-Xiang Li
Sep 2, 2021·Archives of Insect Biochemistry and Physiology·Kangkang ChenCongjing Feng

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