Transcriptomic Analysis of the Brown Planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens, at Different Stages after Metarhizium anisopliae Challenge

Abstract

Nilaparvata lugens is one of the major pests of rice and results in substantial yield loss every year. Our previous study found that the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae showed effective potential for controlling this pest. However, the mechanisms underlying M. anisopliae infection of N. lugens are not well known. In the present study, we further examined the transcriptome of N. lugens at 4 h, 8 h, 16 h, and 24 h after M. anisopliae infection by Illumina deep sequencing. In total, 174.17 Gb of data was collected after sequencing, from which 23,398 unigenes were annotated by various databases, including 3694 newly annotated genes. The results showed that there were 246 vs 75, 275 vs 586, 378 vs 1055, and 638 vs 182 up- and downregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at 4 h, 8 h, 16 h, and 24 h after M. anisopliae infection, respectively. The biological functions and associated metabolic processes of these genes were determined with the Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COG), Gene Ontology (GO), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases. The DEGs data were verified using RT-qPCR. These results indicated that the DEGs during the initial fungal infection appropriately reflected the time course of the response to the fungal infection. Taken together, the results of this study provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the insect host response to fungal infection, especially during the initial stage of infection, and may improve the potential control strategies for N. lugens.

Comprehensive insights into host‐pathogen interaction between brown planthopper and a fungal entomopathogen by dual RNA sequencing

“…mellonella , Melanotus cribricollis , Plutella xylostella and Riptortus pedestris 15–19 . However, few reports have explored the insect‐fungus interaction of BPH during M. anisopliae infection, which extremely impeded the genetic improvement of the fungal entomopathogen against BPH 20 …”

“…Nowadays, RNA sequencing (RNA‐seq) is a power and useful technology that has been widely applied to uncover the molecular mechanism of interactions between the microbial pathogen and its host insect 21 . So far, this approach has been mainly implemented to measure RNA transcript levels in a given pathogen or a given host separately 15,16,20 . Dual RNA sequencing (dual RNA‐seq) allows simultaneous detection of host‐ and pathogen‐specific transcripts in mixed samples, providing a more comprehension insights into host‐pathogen interactions.…”

“…[15][16][17][18][19] However, few reports have explored the insectfungus interaction of BPH during M. anisopliae infection, which extremely impeded the genetic improvement of the fungal entomopathogen against BPH. 20 Nowadays, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a power and useful technology that has been widely applied to uncover the molecular mechanism of interactions between the microbial pathogen and its host insect. 21 So far, this approach has been mainly implemented to measure RNA transcript levels in a given pathogen or a given host separately.…”

“…21 So far, this approach has been mainly implemented to measure RNA transcript levels in a given pathogen or a given host separately. 15,16,20 Dual RNA sequencing (dual RNA-seq) allows simultaneous detection of host-and pathogen-specific transcripts in mixed samples, providing a more comprehension insights into host-pathogen interactions. This technique has since been successfully applied to diverse plant-pathogen systems, but rarely used on insect-fungus models.…”

Topical Fungal Infection Induces Shifts in the Gut Microbiota Structure of Brown Planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Homoptera: Delphacidae)

“…In the insects–fungi interaction model, immune aspects in insects have been extensively studied in individuals or tissues (hemolymph and fat body) that are traditionally attributed to immune responses [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. A large number of immune-related genes have been found to be up-regulated in the whole BPH body after topical infection with M. anisopliae based on comparative transcriptomic analysis [ 13 , 14 ]. Nowadays, accumulating studies have revealed that the gut also plays an important role in shaping insect immunity.…”