Insect-pathogen
Insect-pathogen interaction is the result of a continuous evolutionary race between the host, developing and optimizing strategies to reduce the pathogenic infection, and the pathogens, trying to overcome the insect defenses.
Main mechanisms to defense against the infections developed by the insects rely in their immune system. This is comprised of both humoral and cellular components that are mobilized in response to pathogenic infections that are activated in response to the interaction with the pathogens. This response includes the activation of detoxification and damage repair systems the synthesis and secretion of antimicrobial peptides and degradation enzymes, phagocytosis, melanization, cell apoptosis and cell sloughing, among others. Most of these processes are modulated by the activation of three pathways involved in the immune response: the Toll, the immune deficiency (IMD), and the Janus Kinases (JAK)/Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription (STAT) pathways.
With our studies we aim to determine and characterize the components involved in mentioned mechanism in Lepidoptera larvae as well as determine novel
proteins and mechanisms that could also contribute to reduce the detrimental effects of the pathogens. We are mainly focused on the study of the response of the lepidoptera
Spodoptera exigua (beet armyworm) to two entomopathogens such as
Bacillus thuringiensis and
baculovirus.
Our main objectives are:
• Development of genetic tools for the study of pathogen interaction with
S. exigua. We have obtained a comprehensive transcriptome of different stages, tissues and pathogenic challenges of this pest. Currently we are developing a genetic map of this insect in order to obtain its genomic sequence.
• Characterization of tritrophic interactions in the mode of action of
B. thurngiensis and baculovirus. We have found that gut microbiota as well as covert infections with RNA viruses can influence in the susceptibility of insects to the bacterial and viral entomopathogens.
We are interested in determining those factors influencing in the final output of such interaction. Recently, we have also started to determine the effect of certain plant-derived secondary metabolites in the insect susceptibility.
• Biotechnological application of baculovirus. Based in our
studies on insect-pathogen interaction we have identified novel host and viral regulatory sequences with applications in the use of baculovirus as a protein expression vector. For instance, we have found a novel promoter with about 3-fold higher activity than classical polyhedrin promoter. Other sequences are being tested.
You can get more information about our research at the
Articles and
News section.
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