Tetranychus urticae mites do not mount an induced immune response against bacteria

  1. Santos-Matos, G. 18
  2. Wybouw, N. 59
  3. Martins, N.E. 811
  4. Zélé, F. 1
  5. Riga, M. 4
  6. Leitão, A.B. 38
  7. Vontas, J. 610
  8. Grbić, M. 27
  9. Van Leeuwen, T. 59
  10. Magalhães, S. 18
  11. Sucena, É. 18
  1. 1 Universidade de Lisboa
    info

    Universidade de Lisboa

    Lisboa, Portugal

    ROR https://ror.org/01c27hj86

  2. 2 University of Western Ontario
    info

    University of Western Ontario

    London, Canadá

    ROR https://ror.org/02grkyz14

  3. 3 University of Cambridge
    info

    University of Cambridge

    Cambridge, Reino Unido

    ROR https://ror.org/013meh722

  4. 4 University of Crete
    info

    University of Crete

    Heraklion, Grecia

    ROR https://ror.org/00dr28g20

  5. 5 University of Amsterdam
    info

    University of Amsterdam

    Ámsterdam, Holanda

    ROR https://ror.org/04dkp9463

  6. 6 Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, 100 N. Plastira Street, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
  7. 7 Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino
    info

    Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino

    Logroño, España

    ROR https://ror.org/01rm2sw78

  8. 8 Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Rua da Quinta Grande, 6, Oeiras, Portugal
  9. 9 Ghent University
    info

    Ghent University

    Gante, Bélgica

    ROR https://ror.org/00cv9y106

  10. 10 Agricultural University of Athens
    info

    Agricultural University of Athens

    Atenas, Grecia

    ROR https://ror.org/03xawq568

  11. 11 Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology
    info

    Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology

    Estrasburgo, Francia

    ROR https://ror.org/05qpmg879

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Revista:
Proceedings of the Royal Society - Biological Sciences (Series B)

ISSN: 0962-8452

Año de publicación: 2017

Volumen: 284

Número: 1856

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.1098/RSPB.2017.0401 SCOPUS: 2-s2.0-85020458524 WoS: WOS:000405955300011 GOOGLE SCHOLAR

Otras publicaciones en: Proceedings of the Royal Society - Biological Sciences (Series B)

Repositorio institucional: lock_openAcceso abierto Editor

Resumen

The genome of the spider mite Tetranychus urticae, a herbivore, is missing important elements of the canonical Drosophila immune pathways necessary to fight bacterial infections. However, it is not known whether spider mites can mount an immune response and survive bacterial infection. In other chelicerates, bacterial infection elicits a response mediated by immune effectors leading to the survival of infected organisms. In T. urticae, infection by either Escherichia coli or Bacillus megaterium did not elicit a response as assessed through genome-wide transcriptomic analysis. In line with this, spider mites died within days even upon injection with low doses of bacteria that are non-pathogenic to Drosophila. Moreover, bacterial populations grew exponentially inside the infected spider mites. By contrast, Sancassania berlesei, a litter-dwelling mite, controlled bacterial proliferation and resisted infections with both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria lethal to T. urticae. This differential mortality between mite species was absent when mites were infected with heat-killed bacteria. Also, we found that spider mites harbour in their gut 1000-fold less bacteria than S. berlesei. We show that T. urticae has lost the capacity to mount an induced immune response against bacteria, in contrast to other mites and chelicerates but similarly to the phloem feeding aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum. Hence, our results reinforce the putative evolutionary link between ecological conditions regarding exposure to bacteria and the architecture of the immune response. © 2017 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.