Monday, November 15, 2004
D0034

Entomopathogenic nematodes, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora and Steinernema glaseri, induce and suppress cellular immune responses of different hosts

Xinyi Li, xql100@psu.edu and Diana Cox-Foster, dxc12@psu.edu. Pennsylvania State University, Department of Entomology, State College, PA

The cellular immune response is critical for innate immune response of mammals and insects. Entomopathogenic nematodes, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora and Steinernema glaseri , induce or evade innate immune responses in different insect hosts. Using an in vitro assay, we shown how the nematodes interact with blood cells of different insect hosts. We hypothesized that the surface coat proteins play an important role in suppressing host immunity. Therefore, we extracted, separated the proteins of both nematodes and showed that the profile of surface coat proteins of H. bacteriophora and S. glaseri are different. We have sequenced the proteins and are locating the genes and identifying the function of the proteins in suppressing innate immune response in insects.


Keywords: immune response