24 research outputs found
Chrysolina herbacea Modulates Terpenoid Biosynthesis of Mentha aquatica L.
Interactions between herbivorous insects and plants storing terpenoids are poorly
understood. This study describes the ability of Chrysolina
herbacea to use volatiles emitted by undamaged Mentha
aquatica plants as attractants and the plant's response to
herbivory, which involves the production of deterrent molecules. Emitted plant
volatiles were analyzed by GC-MS. The insect's response to plant volatiles
was tested by Y-tube olfactometer bioassays. Total RNA was extracted from
control plants, mechanically damaged leaves, and leaves damaged by herbivores.
The terpenoid quantitative gene expressions (qPCR) were then assayed. Upon
herbivory, M. aquatica synthesizes and emits
(+)-menthofuran, which acts as a deterrent to C. herbacea.
Herbivory was found to up-regulate the expression of genes involved in terpenoid
biosynthesis. The increased emission of (+)-menthofuran was correlated with
the upregulation of (+)-menthofuran synthase
Massively Parallel Sequencing and Analysis of the Necator americanus Transcriptome
The blood-feeding hookworm Necator americanus infects hundreds of millions of people. To elucidate fundamental molecular biological aspects of this hookworm, the transcriptome of adult Necator americanus was studied using next-generation sequencing and in silico analyses. Contigs (n = 19,997) were assembled from the sequence data; 6,771 of them had known orthologues in the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, and most encoded proteins with WD40 repeats (10.6%), proteinase inhibitors (7.8%) or calcium-binding EF-hand proteins (6.7%). Bioinformatic analyses inferred that C. elegans homologues are involved mainly in biological pathways linked to ribosome biogenesis (70%), oxidative phosphorylation (63%) and/or proteases (60%). Comparative analyses of the transcriptomes of N. americanus and the canine hookworm, Ancylostoma caninum, revealed qualitative and quantitative differences. Essential molecules were predicted using a combination of orthology mapping and functional data available for C. elegans. Further analyses allowed the prioritization of 18 predicted drug targets which did not have human homologues. These candidate targets were inferred to be linked to mitochondrial metabolism or amino acid synthesis. This investigation provides detailed insights into the transcriptome of the adult stage of N. americanus