Transcriptome profiling of Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera:Plutellidae) infected by entomopathogenic fungus Isaria fumosorosea

Abstract:

Background]The infection of entomopathogenic fungi is a complex process resulted from the joint action of multiple genes.The Isaria fumosorosea isolate IFCF01 has high pathogenicity to Plutella xylostella.However,there are few reports on the genes related to the pathogenicity of I. fumosorosea to P. xylostella.[Objective]This study aims to explore the genes related to the infection of I. fumosorosea to P. xylostella,so as to reveal the pathogenic mechanism of I. fumosorosea and provide reference for the application of I. fumosorosea in the control of P. xylostella.[Methods] We performed high-throughput RNA sequencing to compare the transcriptomes of I. fumosorosea pure culture (control group) and the mixed samples of 2nd–3rd instar larvae of P. xylostella infected by I. fumosorosea for 4,8,12,16,24,30,and 36 h (treatment group) and mined the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the two groups.The functional modules and signaling pathways involving the DEGs were analyzed by bioinformatics method.[Results]A total of 28 384 DEGs were screened out,including 274 significant DEGs (118 up-regulated and 156 down-regulated ones).The significant DEGs screened out in this study,especially the up-regulated ones,were related to the infection.We conducted GO annotation to analyze the DEGs and found 36 GO terms,which included 18 biological processes,9 cellular components,and 9 molecular functions.There were 171 DEGs enriched in 132 KEGG pathways,of which 66 DEGs were significantly enriched in 14 pathways.Further analysis showed that many DEGs were virulence-associated genes during the infection.[Conclusion]The findings generated from this study provide a bioinformatic database for screening the pathogenic genes related to the infection of I. fumososea in P. xylostella and lays a theoretical foundation for elucidating the mechanism of I. fumosorosea infecting P. xylostella.