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Effect of Juvenile Hormone on Resistance against Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium robertsii Differs between Sexes

Juvenile hormone has been suggested to be a potential mediator in the trade-off between mating and insects’ immunity. Studies on various insect taxons have found that juvenile hormone interferes with humoral and cellular immunity. Although this was shown experimentally, studies using highly virulent...

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Autores principales: Rantala, Markus J., Dubovskiy, Ivan M., Pölkki, Mari, Krama, Tatjana, Contreras-Garduño, Jorge, Krams, Indrikis A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7711818/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33227937
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof6040298
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author Rantala, Markus J.
Dubovskiy, Ivan M.
Pölkki, Mari
Krama, Tatjana
Contreras-Garduño, Jorge
Krams, Indrikis A.
author_facet Rantala, Markus J.
Dubovskiy, Ivan M.
Pölkki, Mari
Krama, Tatjana
Contreras-Garduño, Jorge
Krams, Indrikis A.
author_sort Rantala, Markus J.
collection PubMed
description Juvenile hormone has been suggested to be a potential mediator in the trade-off between mating and insects’ immunity. Studies on various insect taxons have found that juvenile hormone interferes with humoral and cellular immunity. Although this was shown experimentally, studies using highly virulent parasites or pathogens are lacking so far. In this study, we tested if juvenile hormone administration affected resistance against entomopathogenic fungi, Metarhizium robertsii, in the mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor. In previous studies with T. molitor, juvenile hormone has been found to reduce a major humoral immune effector-system (phenoloxidase) in both sexes and decrease the encapsulation response in males. Here, we found that juvenile hormone administration prolonged survival time after infection with M. robertsii in males but reduced survival time in females. This study indicates that the effects of juvenile hormone on insect immunity might be more complicated than previously considered. We also suggest that there might be a trade-off between specific and non-specific immunity since, in males, juvenile hormone enhances specific immunity but corrupts non-specific immunity. Our study highlights the importance of using real parasites and pathogens in immuno-ecological studies.
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spelling pubmed-77118182020-12-04 Effect of Juvenile Hormone on Resistance against Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium robertsii Differs between Sexes Rantala, Markus J. Dubovskiy, Ivan M. Pölkki, Mari Krama, Tatjana Contreras-Garduño, Jorge Krams, Indrikis A. J Fungi (Basel) Article Juvenile hormone has been suggested to be a potential mediator in the trade-off between mating and insects’ immunity. Studies on various insect taxons have found that juvenile hormone interferes with humoral and cellular immunity. Although this was shown experimentally, studies using highly virulent parasites or pathogens are lacking so far. In this study, we tested if juvenile hormone administration affected resistance against entomopathogenic fungi, Metarhizium robertsii, in the mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor. In previous studies with T. molitor, juvenile hormone has been found to reduce a major humoral immune effector-system (phenoloxidase) in both sexes and decrease the encapsulation response in males. Here, we found that juvenile hormone administration prolonged survival time after infection with M. robertsii in males but reduced survival time in females. This study indicates that the effects of juvenile hormone on insect immunity might be more complicated than previously considered. We also suggest that there might be a trade-off between specific and non-specific immunity since, in males, juvenile hormone enhances specific immunity but corrupts non-specific immunity. Our study highlights the importance of using real parasites and pathogens in immuno-ecological studies. MDPI 2020-11-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7711818/ /pubmed/33227937 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof6040298 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Rantala, Markus J.
Dubovskiy, Ivan M.
Pölkki, Mari
Krama, Tatjana
Contreras-Garduño, Jorge
Krams, Indrikis A.
Effect of Juvenile Hormone on Resistance against Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium robertsii Differs between Sexes
title Effect of Juvenile Hormone on Resistance against Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium robertsii Differs between Sexes
title_full Effect of Juvenile Hormone on Resistance against Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium robertsii Differs between Sexes
title_fullStr Effect of Juvenile Hormone on Resistance against Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium robertsii Differs between Sexes
title_full_unstemmed Effect of Juvenile Hormone on Resistance against Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium robertsii Differs between Sexes
title_short Effect of Juvenile Hormone on Resistance against Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium robertsii Differs between Sexes
title_sort effect of juvenile hormone on resistance against entomopathogenic fungus metarhizium robertsii differs between sexes
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7711818/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33227937
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof6040298
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