Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 21 November 2008:
Vol. 322. no. 5905, pp. 1257 - 1259
DOI: 10.1126/science.1165265
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Antimicrobial Defense and Persistent Infection in Insects

Eleanor R. Haine,1 Yannick Moret,2 Michael T. Siva-Jothy,1 Jens Rolff1*

During 400 million years of existence, insects have rarely succumbed to the evolution of microbial resistance against their potent antimicrobial immune defenses. We found that microbial clearance after infection is extremely fast and that induced antimicrobial activity starts to increase only when most of the bacteria (99.5%) have been removed. Our experiments showed that those bacteria that survived exposure to the insect's constitutive immune response were subsequently more resistant to it. These results imply that induced antimicrobial compounds function primarily to protect the insect against the bacteria that persist within their body, rather than to clear microbial infections. These findings suggest that understanding of the management of antimicrobial peptides in natural systems might inform medical treatment strategies that avoid the risk of drug resistance.

1 Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.
2 Équipe Écologie Évolutive, UMR CNRS 5561 Biogéosciences, Université de Bourgogne, 6 boulevard Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, France.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jor{at}sheffield.ac.uk

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Rapid induction of immune density-dependent prophylaxis in adult social insects.
M. X. Ruiz-Gonzalez, Y. Moret, and M. J. F. Brown (2009)
Biol Lett 5, 781-783
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Identification of Lipoteichoic Acid as a Ligand for Draper in the Phagocytosis of Staphylococcus aureus by Drosophila Hemocytes.
Y. Hashimoto, Y. Tabuchi, K. Sakurai, M. Kutsuna, K. Kurokawa, T. Awasaki, K. Sekimizu, Y. Nakanishi, and A. Shiratsuchi (2009)
J. Immunol. 183, 7451-7460
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
In Vitro Antibacterial Activity of Acyl-Lysyl Oligomers against Helicobacter pylori.
M. O. Makobongo, T. Kovachi, H. Gancz, A. Mor, and D. S. Merrell (2009)
Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 53, 4231-4239
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)