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Abstract Background Insects react against pathogens through innate immunity. The cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera (H. armigera) is an important defoliator and an extremely destructive pest insect of many crops. The elucidation of the mechanism of the immune response of H. armigera to various pathogens can provide a theoretical basis for new approaches to biologically control this pest. Results Four kinds of pathogens Bacillus thuringiensis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Candida albicans, and Autographa californica multiple nucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus harbored green fluorescence protein and polyhedron (AcMNPV-GFP) were used to challenge the insect. The cellular and humoral immune responses to the pathogens were analyzed in the challenged H. armigera. The results show that in the five kinds of haemocytes, only granulocytes phagocytized the Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and fungi. All haemocytes can be infected by AcMNPV. Fourteen immune-related genes including pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) such as peptidoglycan recognition proteins (HaPGRP and HaPGRP C) and Gram-Negative Bacteria-Binding Protein (HaGNBP), and antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) such as cecropin-1, 2 and 3 (HaCec-1, 2 and 3), lysozyme (HaLys), attacin (HaAtt), gallerimycin-like (HaGall), gloverin-like (HaGlo), moricin-like (HaMor), cobatoxin-like (HaCob), galiomicin-like (HaGali), and immune inducible protein (HaIip) appeared in different expression profiles to different pathogen infections. The transcripts of 13 immune related genes (except HaPGRPC) are obviously up-regulated by Gram-positive bacteria. HaCec-1 and 3, HaMor, HaAtt, HaLys, HaIip, HaPGRP and HaGNBP are greatly up-regulated after fungal infection. HaGNBP, HaCec-2, HaGall, HaGlo, HaMor, HaCob, HaGali obviously increased in Gram-negative bacterial infection. Only five genes, HaGNBP, HaCec-1, HaGali, HaGlo, and HaLys, are weakly up-regulated after viral infection. The AMP transcripts had higher expression levels than the PRR transcripts after the microbial challenge. Conclusions These data suggest that the granulocytes are the major phagocytes in H. armigera. All haemocytes can be infected by AcMNPV. The transcripts of 14 immune related genes have different expression patterns in H. armigera infected by different pathogens, which means that the immune-related genes may have different functions against various kinds of pathogens.

Abstract Background Nuclear transport factor 2 and small GTPase Ran participate in the nucleo-cytoplasm transport of macromolecules, but their function in the 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) signal transduction pathway are not well known. Results A 703 bp encoding Ntf2 and a 1233 bp encoding Ran full-length cDNAs were cloned from Helicoverpa armigera, and named Ha-Ntf2 and Ha-Ran, respectively. Northern blot and immunoblotting revealed that Ha-Ntf2 had an obviously higher expression levels in the head-thorax and integument of the metamorphically committed larvae. In contrast, the expression of Ha-Ran did not show obvious variation at various developmental stages in four tissues by immunoblotting analysis, except in the midgut, which showed increased expression from 5th-36 h (molting) to 6th-48 h. Both expressions of Ha-Ntf2 and Ha-Ran could be upregulated by 20E in vitro. Immunohistochemistry revealed that Ha-Ntf2 and Ha-Ran were primarily localized in the nucleus of various tissues. Protein binding assay and co-immunoprecipitation indicated that Ha-Ntf2 and Ha-Ran can combine with each other in vitro and in vivo. Knock down of Ha-Ntf2 or Ha-Ran by RNAi resulted in the suppression of other 20E regulated genes including EcR-B1, USP1, E75B, BR-CZ2, HHR3 and Ha-eIF5c. In addition, the knockdown of Ha-Ntf2 resulted in Ha-Ran being prevented in the cytoplasm. The nuclear location of the ecdysone receptor b1 (EcR-B1) was also blocked after the knockdown of Ha-Ntf2 and Ha-Ran. Conclusion These evidences suggested that Ha-Ntf2 and Ha-Ran participated in the 20E signal transduction pathway by regulating the location of EcR-B1.

This article aims to provide a good experimental method for the study of drug treatment of ulcerative colitis. According to the characteristics of ulcerative colitis's clinical symptoms, common ulcerative colitis animal models were analyzed. Based on the characteristics of clinical symptoms of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine for ulcerative colitis disease, the existing commonly used animal models of ulcerative colitis were analyzed to summarize the current matching degree, advantages and disadvantages of the exi-sting animal models of ulcerative colitis and clinical symptoms. At present, studies on ulcerative colitis mainly adopt four types of induction modeling methods, such as immunization, chemical stimulation, compound method and gene model. There are many reported methods of colitis modeling, but no model can reflect the characteristics of clinical symptoms of ulcerative colitis treated with Western or Chinese medicine. This article summarizes the characteristics, clinically relevant symptoms and applicable scope of immunization, chemical stimulation, compound method, and gene model, so as to provide a reliable animal model for subsequent studies of prevention and treatment of colitis.

Insect molting involves many molecular processes, such as protein degradation and protein synthesis in the epidermis. Various proteins have been implicated in these processes. The differentially expressed proteins during larval molting of Helicoverpa armigera were investigated using two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-D-PAGE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (MALTI-TOF-MS). Four larval tissues sampled during molting and feeding were examined. Seventy-seven differentially expressed proteins were identified in these tissues, including 20 proteins from the fifth-molting epidermis (fifth instar molting to sixth instar), 36 proteins from the fifth-molting hemolymph, and 21 from the fifth-molting fat bodies. No obviously different spots were identified from the fifth-molting midgut under these experimental conditions. After application of MALTI-TOF-MS and similarity analysis comparing results to a Drosophila protein database, 30 proteins were identified: 10 proteins from the fifth-molting epidermis, 11 proteins from the hemolymph, and 9 proteins from fat bodies. These proteins were separated into 5 groups according to their probable functions, such as enzymes, regulators, protein hydrolases, receptors, and proteins with unknown functions. These differentially expressed proteins were proposed to be involved in the Helicoverpa molting cascade.