日本东京农业技术大学Madoka Nakai等研究人员合作发现，水平传播的寄生虫杀伤因子塑造昆虫对寄生虫的防御能力。2021年7月30日出版的《科学》杂志发表了这项成果。

研究人员报道了一个基因家族，即寄生虫杀伤因子（pkf），它编码的蛋白质对小腹茧蜂亚科的寄生虫有毒，并决定了寄生的成功率。pkf在几个昆虫致病DNA病毒家族和一些鳞翅目动物基因组中发现。研究人员提供的证据表明，在昆虫痘病毒、囊泡病毒和杆状病毒和鳞翅目昆虫中发现的pkf对内寄生虫具有同等和特定的毒性，其机制是在易感寄生虫的细胞中引起凋亡。这突出了寄生虫、病毒和它们的昆虫宿主之间的进化竞赛。

据了解，在共享同一昆虫宿主的膜翅目寄生虫和昆虫病毒之间会发生生物界之间的竞争。人们认为，寄生虫幼虫随着被感染宿主的死亡而死亡，或由于对宿主资源的竞争而死亡。

附：英文原文

Title: Horizontally transmitted parasitoid killing factor shapes insect defense to parasitoids

Author: Laila Gasmi, Edyta Sieminska, Shohei Okuno, Rie Ohta, Cathy Coutu, Mohammad Vatanparast, Stephanie Harris, Doug Baldwin, Dwayne D. Hegedus, David A. Theilmann, Aki Kida, Mio Kawabata, Shiori Sagawa, Jun Takatsuka, Ken Tateishi, Kazuyo Watanabe, Maki N. Inoue, Yasuhisa Kunimi, Yonggyun Kim, Martin A. Erlandson, Salvador Herrero, Madoka Nakai

Issue&Volume: 2021/07/30

Abstract: Interkingdom competition occurs between hymenopteran parasitoids and insect viruses sharing the same insect hosts. It has been assumed that parasitoid larvae die with the death of the infected host or as result of competition for host resources. Here we describe a gene family, parasitoid killing factor (pkf), that encodes proteins toxic to parasitoids of the Microgastrinae group and determines parasitism success. Pkfs are found in several entomopathogenic DNA virus families and in some lepidopteran genomes. We provide evidence of equivalent and specific toxicity against endoparasites for PKFs found in entomopoxvirus, ascovirus, baculovirus, and Lepidoptera through a mechanism that elicits apoptosis in the cells of susceptible parasitoids. This highlights the evolutionary arms race between parasitoids, viruses, and their insect hosts.

DOI: 10.1126/science.abb6396

Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/373/6554/535