Chemical cues in disease recognition and their immunomodulatory role in insects

Milutinović, Barbar; Schmitt, Thomas (2022) Chemical cues in disease recognition and their immunomodulatory role in insects. Current Opinion in Insect Science, 50 . ISSN 2214-5745

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Abstract

Preventing infections is crucial for host fitness and many insects modify their behaviour upon sensing contagion. We review chemical cues that mediate insect behaviour in response to parasites, and diseased or dead conspecifics. Considering the large diversity of behavioural disease defences described, surprisingly little is known about disease-associated cues that mediate them, especially their chemoreceptor and neuronal details. Interestingly, disease cues do not only modify host behaviour, but they could play a direct role in immune system activation via neuroendocrine regulation, bypassing the need for risky immunological contact with the parasite. Such crosstalk is an exciting emerging research area in insect ecological immunology that should prove invaluable in studying host-parasite interactions by combining analytical methods from chemical ecology.

Item Type:

Article

Uncontrolled Keywords:

host-parasite interactions, sickness cues, disease recognition, volatile organic compounds (VOCs); cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs); behavioural defence; chemical cue-immunity crosstalk; neuroendocrine immunomodulation

Subjects:

NATURAL SCIENCES > Chemistry
NATURAL SCIENCES > Biology
NATURAL SCIENCES > Biology > Ecology

Divisions:

Division of Molecular Biology

Projects: