TY - JOUR T1 - Insect immune specificity in a host-parasite model JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/002709 SP - 002709 AU - C.E. Riddell AU - J.D. Lobaton Garces AU - S. Adams AU - D. Twell AU - E.B. Mallon Y1 - 2014/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2014/04/30/002709.abstract N2 - Ecological studies routinely show host-parasite genotype-genotype interactions in insect systems. The mechanisms behind these interactions are not clearly understood. Using the bumblebee Bombus terrestris / trypanosome Crithidia bombi model system, we have carried out a transcriptome-wide analysis of gene expression in bees during C. bombi infection. We have performed three analyses, 1) comparing expression in infected and non-infected bees 24 hours after infection by Crithidia bombi, 2) comparing expression at 24 and 48 hours after C.bombi infection and 3) most importantly searching for differential gene expression associated with the host-parasite genotype-genotype interaction at 24 hours after infection. We found a large number of genes differentially regulated related to numerous canonical immune pathways. These genes include receptors, signaling pathways and effectors. We discovered a possible interaction between the peritrophic membrane and the insect immune system in defense against Crithidia. Most interestingly we found differential expression of Dscam related transcripts depends on the genotype-genotype interactions of the given bumblebee colony and Crithidia strain. ER -