title: β-Thymosin is upregulated by the steroid hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone and microorganisms.
abstract: Thymosins have diverse biological activities including actin-sequestering and tissue repair in vertebrates, however, there is little information about the function of thymosins in invertebrates. We isolated a β-thymosin gene in Helicoverpa armigera. It has two transcript variants, HaTHY1 and HaTHY2, encoding 19.0 kDa and 14.5 kDa peptides, respectively. HaTHY1 was mainly transcribed in the integument and midgut, while HaTHY2 was principally presented in the fat body and haemocytes. The transcript levels of HaTHY2 showed some fluctuation; there was an obvious increase at the metamorphic stage in the integument or fat body. HaTHY was able to be upregulated by 20-hydroxyecdysone or by bacterial and viral challenge. These data suggest that HaTHY is upregulated by the steroid hormone and by responses to microorganism infection.
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Plant Cell Engineering and Germplasm Innovation, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
authors.forename: F-X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: H-L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: J-X
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: X-F
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004441:Ecdysterone / Q000378:metabolism*; D004926:Escherichia coli; D015870:Gene Expression; D007711:Klebsiella pneumoniae; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009036:Moths / Q000254:growth & development / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000382:microbiology; D017924:Nucleopolyhedroviruses; D020033:Protein Isoforms; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013947:Thymosin / Q000378:metabolism*; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D020033:Protein Isoforms; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D004441:Ecdysterone; D013947:Thymosin