Project description:Is there a correlation between miRNA diversity and levels of organismic complexity? Exhibiting extraordinary levels of morphological and developmental complexity, insects are the most diverse animal class on earth. Their evolutionary success was in particular shaped by the innovation of holometabolan metamorphosis in endopterygotes. Previously, miRNA evolution had been linked to morphological complexity, but astonishing variation in the currently available miRNA complements of insects made this link unclear. To address this issue, we sequenced the miRNA complement of the hemimetabolan Blattella germanica and reannotated that of two other hemimetabolan species, Locusta migratoria and Acyrthosiphon pisum, and of four holometabolan species, Apis mellifera, Tribolium castaneum, Bombyx mori and Drosophila melanogaster. Our analyses show that the variation of insect miRNAs is an artefact mainly resulting from poor sampling and inaccurate miRNA annotation, and that insects share a conserved microRNA toolkit of 65 families exhibiting very low variation. For example, the evolutionary shift toward a complete metamorphosis was accompanied only by the acquisition of three and the loss of one miRNA families.
Project description:RNA interference (RNAi) functions as the major host antiviral defense in insects, while less is understood about how to utilize antiviral RNAi in controlling viral infection in insects. Enoxacin belongs to the family of synthetic antibacterial compounds based on a fluoroquinolone skeleton that has been previously found to enhance RNAi in mammalian cells. In this study, we showed that enoxacin efficiently inhibited viral replication of Drosophila C virus (DCV) and Cricket paralysis virus (CrPV) in cultured Drosophila cells. Enoxacin promoted the loading of Dicer-2-processed virus-derived siRNA into the RNA-induced silencing complex, thereby enhancing antiviral RNAi response in infected cells. Moreover, enoxacin treatment elicited an RNAi-dependent in vivo protective efficacy against DCV or CrPV challenge in adult fruit flies. In addition, enoxacin also inhibited replication of flaviviruses, including Dengue virus and Zika virus, in Aedes mosquito cells in an RNAi-dependent manner. Together, our findings demonstrated that enoxacin can enhance RNAi in insects, and enhancing RNAi by enoxacin is an effective antiviral strategy against diverse viruses in insects, which may be exploited as a broad-spectrum antiviral agent to control vector transmission of arboviruses or viral diseases in insect farming.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of phytoplasma grown in plant (Chrysanthemum coronarium) and grown in insect (Macrosteles striifrons). Two-condition experiment, phytoplasma-infected plant and phytoplasma-infected insect. Biological replicates: 6 phytoplasma-infected plants and 6 phytoplasma-infected insects, independently grown and harvested. One replicate per array.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of phytoplasma grown in plant (Chrysanthemum coronarium) and grown in insect (Macrosteles striifrons). Two-condition experiment, phytoplasma-infected plant and phytoplasma-infected insect. Biological replicates: 4 phytoplasma-infected plants and 4 phytoplasma-infected insects, independently grown and harvested. One replicate per array.