Adipokinetic hormone and adenosine in Drosophila melanogaster as a part of defence reaction against nematobacterial infection
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | Entomopathogenic nematodes and their associated bacteria comprise together a highly pathogenic complex which is able to invade and kill insect host within two days. Both bacteria and nematodes produce a variety of factors interacting with the insect immune system. It is known that they activate anti-stress defence where adipokinetic hormone (AKH), important stress hormone responsible for keeping homeostasis in insect body, and adenosine, a purine nucleotide that serves as signalling factor in anti-stress reaction, play a role. Drosophila melanogaster mutants with non-functional AKH (AKH-def) and impaired adenosine receptor (AdoR-def), and two nematodal species Steinernema carpocapsae and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora were used in our study. The results revealed that both mutants showed significantly lower mortality after infection than the control, and reversely, application of external AKH significantly increased the mortality. We have found that the AKH absence reduced production of nutrients into the haemolymph, which inhibited the development of infection, and vice versa the application of AKH restored production of energy rich metabolites and supported the infection. Indeed, our experiments indicated clear stimulatory role of AKH, and minor modulatory role of adenosine in regulation of the trehalose level in Drosophila haemolymph. The nematode infection was accompanied by higher production of AKH, by increasing of anti-oxidative activity and by raising of nutrients in haemolymph which affected also larval locomotion as we detected by FTIR-based tracking method. Supported by the grant 17-03253S (Czech Science Foundation) and by the Missions Department in Cairo, Egypt. |
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