title: Antimicrobial defence and persistent infection in insects revisited.
abstract: Insects show long-lasting antimicrobial immune responses that follow the initial fast-acting cellular processes. These immune responses are discussed to provide a form of phrophylaxis and/or to serve as a safety measure against persisting infections. The duration and components of such long-lasting responses have rarely been studied in detail, a necessary prerequisite to understand their adaptive value. Here, we present a 21 day proteomic time course of the mealworm beetle Tenebrio molitor immune-challenged with heat-killed Staphylococcus aureus The most upregulated peptides are antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), many of which are still highly abundant 21 days after infection. The identified AMPs included toll and imd-mediated AMPs, a significant number of which have no known function against S. aureus or other Gram-positive bacteria. The proteome reflects the selective arena for bacterial infections. The results also corroborate the notion of synergistic interactions in vivo that are difficult to model in vitroThis article is part of the themed issue 'Evolutionary ecology of arthropod antimicrobial peptides'.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biologie, Evolutionary Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Straße 1-3, Berlin 14195, Germany.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Makarova
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biologie, Evolutionary Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Straße 1-3, Berlin 14195, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Rojas
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Thielallee 63, Berlin 14195, Germany.
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eravci
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Thielallee 63, Berlin 14195, Germany.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5507-4694
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Weise
authors.affiliation: Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Darwin Building, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dobson
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biologie, Evolutionary Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Straße 1-3, Berlin 14195, Germany Berlin Center for Genomics in Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Straße 6-8, Berlin 14195, Germany.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biologie, Evolutionary Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Straße 1-3, Berlin 14195, Germany Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), Altensteinstraße 6, Berlin 14195, Germany jens.rolff@fu-berlin.de.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1529-5409
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rolff
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000378:metabolism; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D007162:Immunoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D040901:Proteomics; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000502:physiology*; D013712:Tenebrio / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D007162:Immunoproteins; D019476:Insect Proteins
keywords: Tenebrio molitor; antimicrobial peptides; long-lasting immunity; proteomics