title: The immune signaling pathways of Manduca sexta.
abstract: Signal transduction pathways and their coordination are critically important for proper functioning of animal immune systems. Our knowledge of the constituents of the intracellular signaling network in insects mainly comes from genetic analyses in Drosophila melanogaster. To facilitate future studies of similar systems in the tobacco hornworm and other lepidopteran insects, we have identified and examined the homologous genes in the genome of Manduca sexta. Based on 1:1 orthologous relationships in most cases, we hypothesize that the Toll, Imd, MAPK-JNK-p38 and JAK-STAT pathways are intact and operative in this species, as are most of the regulatory mechanisms. Similarly, cellular processes such as autophagy, apoptosis and RNA interference probably function in similar ways, because their mediators and modulators are mostly conserved in this lepidopteran species. We have annotated a total of 186 genes encoding 199 proteins, studied their domain structures and evolution, and examined their mRNA levels in tissues at different life stages. Such information provides a genomic perspective of the intricate signaling system in a non-drosophiline insect.
authors: Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.
authors: Xiaolong
authors: X
authors: Cao
authors: Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: He
authors: Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.
authors: Yingxia
authors: Y
authors: Hu
authors: Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.
authors: Yang
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
authors: Yun-Ru
authors: YR
authors: Chen
authors: Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA.
authors: Bart
authors: B
authors: Bryant
authors: Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA.
authors: Rollie J
authors: RJ
authors: Clem
authors: Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
authors: Lawrence M
authors: LM
authors: Schwartz
authors: Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
authors: Gary
authors: G
authors: Blissard
authors: Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA. Electronic address: haobo.jiang@okstate.edu.
authors: Haobo
authors: H
authors: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D049750:Genome, Insect; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018402:Manduca / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D019476:Insect Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger
keywords: Expression profiling; Gene annotation; Insect immunity; RNA-Seq; Transcriptome