1. Introduction
The silkworm, considered a model invertebrate creature, was the first insect used for silk production in human history and was widely used throughout domestication [
1]. However, many viral diseases can pose a serious threat to the growth and development of silkworm [
2,
3]. Silkworm nuclear polyhedrosis virus (BmNPV) infection is a major threat to sericulture and can cause serious economic losses [
4,
5,
6]. When BmNPV infects a host, two types of virus particles are produced: early budding virions (BVS), which are transmitted primarily between cells, and late occlusion-derived virions (ODVs), which are transmitted primarily between hosts [
7,
8]. ODV virus particles are packaged in polyhedra of a highly symmetric covalent crosslinked lattice [
9]. BmNPV mainly infects silkworm larvae through the mouth. The polyhedron is alkaline lysed by the host intestinal environment, and the enteric membrane is destroyed by viruses to form pores [
10]. The nucleocapsid protein of the virus enters the columnar epithelial cells of the host midgut through envelope-mediated membrane fusion, triggering primary infection. The nucleocapsid protein enters the nucleus under the traction of actin, undergoes transcription, and completes the assembly of the progeny viral nucleocapsid in the nucleus [
11]. The mature progeny nucleocapsid enters the cytoplasm through the nuclear pore, obtains the host cell membrane structure under the traction of capsid protein, completes the growth process, and forms a new progeny virus. Late during infection, the progeny ODV is re-embedded in the polyhedron and released into the environment after the death and disintegration of the host. In recent decades, extensive research has been conducted to enrich our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of silkworm resistance to BmNPV infection [
12,
13]. However, the molecular mechanism of its antiviral activity has not been fully elucidated.
Trehalose, also known as fungose, is a non-reducing disaccharide formed by connecting two glucose molecules via an α, α-1, 1-glucoside bond. It is found in a wide variety of organisms, including bacteria, fungi, insects, plants, and invertebrates [
14,
15]. Due to its unique chemical properties, trehalose has the advantage of protecting organisms from a variety of environmental stresses such as cold, oxidation, hypoxia, and drying [
16]. Trehalose is the main hemolymph sugar of most insects [
17], accounting for 80%-90% of the total hemolymph sugar content. It is synthesized in the adipose body, an organ similar to the mammalian liver and adipose tissue, and is released into the hemolymph [
18,
19]. Trehalose plays an important role in the growth and stress resistance of organisms, so some people call trehalose "the sugar of life".
Trehalose metabolic pathways (synthesis, transport, and decomposition) have been extensively studied in insects. After feeding insects, sucrose can be hydrolyzed into fructose and glucose in the gut [
20]. Insects tend to ingest excessive amounts of sucrose, most of which is converted into long-chain oligosaccharides and excreted as honeydew [
21]. The remaining sucrose is used for energy metabolism and maintenance of osmotic balance [
22]. Glucose is transported to the fat body via GLUT and participates in the synthesis of trehalose by TPS/TPP [
23]. Trehalose cannot directly cross the cell membrane [
24], but depends on the specific trehalose transporter
TRET1 for facilitated diffusion into the cell [
25]. Kanamori et al. showed that the
Tret1 gene family is relatively conserved in insects, encoding proteins with different dynamic properties and participating in the release of trehalose from adipose bodies and its introduction into other tissues [
26]. The
Tret1 gene has been cloned from
Polypedilum vanderplanki,
Anopheles gambiae, and
Nilaparvata lugens. Kikawada et al. isolated and characterized
Tret1 from insects and found that trehalose synthesized in fat bodies was transported into hemolymph [
27]. Trehalose is hydrolyzed into two glucose monomers by alginase in hemolymph and transported to tissues in the blood to meet energy requirements [
28]. Studies on trehalose transporters have mainly focused on energy metabolism and stress resistance, but there are few studies on the antiviral mechanisms underpinning insect trehalose transport [
29].
In this study, we conducted transcriptomic profiling and bioinformatics analysis of the silkworm trehalose transporter Bmtret1 gene family and found it a candidate key gene family for silkworm BmNPV resistance in BmNPV susceptible species (Baiyu, BY). This information prompted us to analyze the expression of the sugar transporter gene in susceptible cultivars and its relationship to viral susceptibility. We also analyzed the homologous genes of Bmtret1 and their phylogenetic relationships to investigate their function in Bombyx mori. Through bioinformatic approaches, this study explores the functions of the silkworm Bmtret1 family, and provides a data reference for studying the molecular mechanisms behind insect virus resistance.
3. Discussion
Nuclear polyhedrosis virus disease of silkworm is highly infectious and harmful. It is the most common and most harmful silkworm disease in silkworm rearing and production, and causes serious economic losses every year [
30,
31]. Over the years, many researchers have been committed to screening and breeding resistant silkworm varieties and discovering resistance genes to elucidate the molecular mechanism of silkworm resistance to BmNPV [
32]. With the development of biotechnology, more achievements have been made in the study of
B. mori's resistance to BmNPV virus at the molecular level, and further studies have been made on genes or proteins that may be involved in the antiviral mechanism. After the completion of silkworm genome sequencing, gene chip technology has become an important gene expression analysis method, which has the advantages of large throughput and high accuracy. Zhou et al. detected 92 differentially expressed genes in the intestinal tissues of silkworm varieties BC8 and 306 after 12h of toxic treatment with nucleic acid probes. They further analyzed 10 up-regulated genes by fluorescent quantitative PCR. Fluorescence quantitative PCR technology can quickly compare and analyze the expression of all genes in the sample [
33]. BmS3A is related to the inhibition of apoptosis of infected cells, which inhibits the replication of viruses [
34]. SOP2 gene may promote actin polymerization process and affect virus replication [
35]. We selected midgut tissues of a conventional susceptible strain of silkworm Baiyu infected with BmNPV for second-generation RNA-Seq transcriptome sequencing, for systematic screening of candidate differentially expressed genes involved in BmNPV infection resistance.
Trehalose, as a new type of natural sugar, can be used as a protective factor to protect the organism from external environmental stresses or internal metabolic disorders. TRET, the trehalose transporter, can transport trehalose from the fat body to the hemolymph, and plays an important role in insect stress resistance [
36,
37]. While TRET plays an important role in the resistance to numerous insect stresses, there are very few studies on the effects of
TRET on virus infection. Some studies have speculated that trehalose transprotein-1 (
Tret1) gene may be related to transport of the virus during the interaction between gray planthopper and rice stripe virus [
38]. In addition, the trehalose transprotein-1 (
BmTret1-like) gene of silkworm plays a specific role in the mechanism of BmNPV virus resistance [
39]. Recent studies have shown that the expression of
BmTret1-X1 gene has a clear inhibitory effect on the expression of viral genes in BmNPV [
40]. The transcriptome results found that the expression level of
Bmtret1s significantly responded to BmNPV biological stress, and we speculated that
Bmtret1s may play an important role in the infection of BmNPV.
In this study, it was found that the Bmtret1 gene family varied greatly in different tissues with possible functional differences. Because trehalose is involved in the process of silkworm epidermis formation, it is speculated that the high expression level in the head may be associated with ecdysone and juvenile hormone. The higher expression in the two detoxifying organs of the midgut and fat body indicates that Bmtret1s may participate in the molecular mechanism of disease resistance. In BmNPV-susceptible varieties of white jade silkworm, the vast majority of Bmtret1 genes are downregulated in response to BmNPV oral infection. We speculate that the downregulation of the trehalose transporter gene in the blood allows for BmNPV invasion and is the cause for susceptibility. Furthermore, high expression of Bmtret1s in the midgut and fat body correlates with viral resistance in these two detoxification organs.