Differential gene expression in silkworm in response to Beauveria bassiana infection

Host-pathogen interactions are complex processes, and revealing these interactions is challenging. Beauveria bassiana is a destructive pathogen to the economically beneficial silkworm, Bombyx mori, but is also a good pathogenic material for investigating insect responses to fungal infection. For better understanding of the molecular regulation of immune response and the interactive mechanism between the silkworm and B. bassiana, suppression subtractive hybridization was employed to identify differentially expressed genes in the pathogen-stimulated silkworm larvae. Complementary DNA libraries were constructed, in which 240 clones were sequenced. A total of 77 genes were found to be involved in the infection process, among which 55 were known genes and 22 were novel. Expression profiling of 6 genes by quantitative PCR showed that they were induced by fungal challenge. This study establishes the first step to understanding the molecular mechanisms by which silkworm responds to fungal infection. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.