Involvement of trehalose-6-phosphate synthase in innate immunity of Musca domestica

Trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) is responsible for synthesizing trehalose, which is prevalent in crustaceans and insects as blood-sugar. In this paper, a TPS gene from Musca domestica(MdTPS)has been cloned and characterized. MdTPS promoter was analyzed, and its transcriptional activity was verified in vitro by Sf9 cell. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed that the MdTPS transcription was up-regulated following bacterial challenge by Escherichia coli or Staphylococcus aureus. Meanwhile, trehalose is accumulated in larvae upon bacterial challenge. Significantly increased mortality can be observed in MdTPS depleted (RNA interference, RNAi) larvae under bacterial infection. Interestingly, feeding trehalose led to increasing trehalose content in larvae, and the effects of RNAi targeting MdTPS on host survival against bacterial challenge was partly counteracted. Taken together, these results suggest that MdTPS acts as an inducible anti-stress gene that takes part in immune defense in M. domestica via synthesizing its product trehalose.