RNAi knock-down of shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei Toll gene and immune deficiency gene reveals their difference in regulating antimicrobial peptides transcription

• The transcription of penaeidin3a was suppressed in LvToll-silenced shrimps.
• The transcription of ALF was suppressed in LvIMD-silenced shrimps.
• Silencing LvToll by dsRNA reduced both the transcription of Dorsal and Relish.
• Silencing LvIMD by dsRNA reduced only the transcription of Relish.

NF-κB dependent antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are of critical importance in protecting insects or mammals from microorganisms infection. However, we still do not make clear signaling pathways in regulating AMPs expression in shrimps. In this study, RNAi approach was used to study differences between Toll signaling pathway and immune deficiency signaling pathway in regulating the transcription of NF-κB dependent AMPs post bacteria challenge. Results showed that the transcription level of anti-lipopolysaccharide factor was highly suppressed in Litopenaeus vannamei immune deficiency (LvIMD) silenced shrimps by gene specific dsRNA compared to Litopenaeus vannamei Toll (LvToll) silenced shrimps with or without Vibrio anguillarum and Micrococcus lysodeikticus challenge. Conversely the transcription level of penaeidin3a was significantly suppressed in LvToll silenced shrimps compared to LvIMD silenced shrimps. However, no obvious difference was found in regulating the transcription of CrustinP. Meanwhile, we found that silencing LvToll both down regulated the transcription of Dorsal and Relish while silencing LvIMD only down regulated the transcription of Relish. At last, shrimp survival experiment showed that post V. anguillarum challenge high mortality was found both in LvToll and LvIMD silenced groups while post M. lysodeikticus challenge we saw high mortality only in LvToll silenced group. Hence, we conclude that shrimp L. vannamei Toll pathway and IMD pathway might be different in regulating the transcription of NF-κB dependent AMPs and responding to bacteria challenge but not independent of each other.