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  • Review Article
  • Published:

Bacterial strategies to overcome insect defences

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 6, pages 302–313 (2008)Cite this article

Key Points

  • This Review describes the crosstalk that exists between bacteria and insects, and, particularly, discusses the strategies that are used by bacterial pathogens to persist in insects and the responses of insects to such infections.

  • Insect infections can occur through different routes: bacteria can reach the haemolymph after wounding or assisted entry, but most of the interactions between insects and bacteria happen upon ingestion of contaminated food.

  • Only a handful of bacteria can persist in large numbers in the digestive tracts of insects. It is generally assumed that most ingested bacteria are eliminated from the gut environment by peristalsis or by other unknown mechanisms. The ability of bacteria to persist can be due to a single gene, and might be related to perturbation of gut physiology.

  • Bacteria that can persist after ingestion must overcome the insect immune response. The insect immune response occurs at the infection site in the gut, but some persisting bacteria can also trigger antimicrobial peptide production at the systemic level. Some entomopathogenic bacteria can evade the insect immune response, mainly by suppressing it.

  • Despite the characterization of multiple virulence factors, how pathogens kill insects is not known. Insect death results either from bacterial proliferation or from damages that are caused by a toxic factor (or factors). Multiple factors have been identified, and many of them are under the control of global regulatory systems.

  • In conclusion, it is becoming evident that bacterial infections of insect hosts involve crosstalk that is similar to the crosstalk that is required for bacterial infections of other metazoan hosts. The acquisition of determinants that allow bacteria to persist, or to counteract insect host defences, might change the host range of pathogens.

Abstract

Recent genetic and molecular analyses have revealed how several strategies enable bacteria to persist and overcome insect immune defences. Genetic and genomic tools that can be used with Drosophila melanogaster have enabled the characterization of the pathways that are used by insects to detect bacterial invaders and combat infection. Conservation of bacterial virulence factors and insect immune repertoires indicates that there are common strategies of host invasion and pathogen eradication. Long-term interactions of bacteria with insects might ensure efficient dissemination of pathogens to other hosts, including humans.

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Figure 1: Main routes of bacterial infection in insects.
Figure 2: Schematic diagram of local immune response in Drosophila.
Figure 3: Examples of bacterial infections in insects.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank F. Leulier, N. Vodovar and C. Nielsen-LeRoux for helpful discussions and critical reading of the manuscript. Work described in this Review that was performed in our laboratories was supported by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Agence Nationale de la Recherche, the Schlumberger and Bettancourt Foundations, and the Association 'Vaincre la Mucoviscidose'.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Génétique Moléculaire du CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Isabelle Vallet-Gely, Bruno Lemaitre & Frédéric Boccard

  2. Global Health Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Bruno Lemaitre

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  1. Isabelle Vallet-Gely
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  3. Frédéric Boccard
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Correspondence to Frédéric Boccard.

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DATABASES

Entrez Genome Project

Bacillus cereus

Bacillus thuringiensis

Mycobacterium ulcerans

Photorhabdus luminescens

Pseudomonas entomophila

Serratia marcescens

Yersinia pestis

FURTHER INFORMATION

Bruno Lemaitre's homepage

Bruno Lemaitre's homepage

Frédéric Boccard's homepage

Glossary

Persistence

The survival of bacteria in large numbers in a host.

Colonization

The ability to multiply in the host.

Innate immunity

Effector mechanisms that control infection and that possess a certain degree of specificity to different classes of microorganisms.

Biofilm

Association of bacteria to form a structured community, in contrast to free-living, planktonic bacteria.

Pathogenic

The ability to cause damage to a host.

Tc-toxin

Insecticidal toxin complex, originally characterized in Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus species.

Peptidoglycan recognition proteins

Peptidoglycan recognition proteins are innate immunity molecules that are present in most invertebrate and vertebrate animals.

Infectious

The ability to colonize a host and induce the host immune response.

Type III secretion system

A secretion apparatus that allows direct injection of effectors from bacteria into host cells.

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Vallet-Gely, I., Lemaitre, B. & Boccard, F. Bacterial strategies to overcome insect defences. Nat Rev Microbiol 6, 302–313 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1870

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