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Sex, offspring and carcass determine antimicrobial peptide expression in the burying beetle.

ABSTRACT: The burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides has emerged as a model system for the investigation of adaptations that allow the utilization of carrion as a diet and as a resource for reproduction. The survival of beetles and their offspring given their exposure to soil-dwelling and cadaver-borne microbes requires mechanisms that reduce bacterial contamination in the diet and that achieve sanitation of the microhabitat. To explore the role of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in this context, we analyzed burying beetle males and females at different stages of their breeding cycle using the RNA-Seq and proteomics approaches. To address variation in immune functions, we investigated the impact of adult sex, the presence or absence of offspring (social context), and the presence of carrion (environmental context) on the expression of the identified immune effector genes. We found that particular AMPs are sex-specific and tightly regulated by the presence of a carcass or offspring and identified the two most context-dependent antimicrobial proteins in anal secretions. The context-specific expression dynamics of particular AMPs and lysozymes reveals a complex regulatory system, reflecting adaptations to specific ecological niches. This study highlights how burying beetles cope with microorganisms found on carrion and identifies candidates for both internal and external immunity.

SUBMITTER: Jacobs CG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4853764 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Sex, offspring and carcass determine antimicrobial peptide expression in the burying beetle.

Jacobs Chris G C CG Steiger Sandra S Heckel David G DG Wielsch Natalie N Vilcinskas Andreas A Vogel Heiko H

Scientific reports 20160503

The burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides has emerged as a model system for the investigation of adaptations that allow the utilization of carrion as a diet and as a resource for reproduction. The survival of beetles and their offspring given their exposure to soil-dwelling and cadaver-borne microbes requires mechanisms that reduce bacterial contamination in the diet and that achieve sanitation of the microhabitat. To explore the role of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in this context, we analyz ...[more]

PMID: 27139635

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Project description:Abstract Understanding the genetic influences of traits of nonmodel organisms is crucial to understanding how novel traits arise. Do new traits require new genes or are old genes repurposed? How predictable is this process? Here, we examine this question for gene expression influencing parenting behavior in a beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides. Parental care, produced from many individual behaviors, should be influenced by changes of expression of multiple genes, and one suggestion is that the genes can be predicted based on knowledge of behavior expected to be precursors to parental care, such as aggression, resource defense, and mating on a resource. Thus, testing gene expression during parental care allows us to test expectations of this “precursor hypothesis” for multiple genes and traits. We tested for changes of the expression of serotonin, octopamine/tyramine, and dopamine receptors, as well as one glutamate receptor, predicting that these gene families would be differentially expressed during social interactions with offspring and associated resource defense. We found that serotonin receptors were strongly associated with social and aggression behavioral transitions. Octopamine receptors produced a complex picture of gene expression over a reproductive cycle. Dopamine was not associated with the behavioral transitions sampled here, while the glutamate receptor was most consistent with a behavioral change of resource defense/aggression. Our results generate new hypotheses, refine candidate lists for further studies, and inform the genetic mechanisms that are co‐opted during the evolution of parent–offspring interactions, a likely evolutionary path for many lineages that become fully social. The precursor hypothesis, while not perfect, does provide a starting point for identifying candidate genes. Predicting gene function of nonmodel organisms is necessary to understanding how novel phenotypes arise and how conserved genetic mechanisms are. We tested whether neurotransmitter receptor expression can be predicted from known associations from previously studied organisms during parental care. Some neurotransmitters showed high predictability (serotonin, glutamate), while other did not (octopamine, dopamine).

Dataset Information

Sex, offspring and carcass determine antimicrobial peptide expression in the burying beetle.

Publications

Sex, offspring and carcass determine antimicrobial peptide expression in the burying beetle.

Similar Datasets

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