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Immune genes and divergent antimicrobial peptides in flies of the subgenus Drosophila

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Ecology and Evolution, October 2016
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  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (68th percentile)
  • Average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source

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Title
Immune genes and divergent antimicrobial peptides in flies of the subgenus Drosophila
Published in
BMC Ecology and Evolution, October 2016
DOI 10.1186/s12862-016-0805-y
Pubmed ID
Authors

Mark A. Hanson, Phineas T. Hamilton, Steve J. Perlman

Abstract

Drosophila is an important model for studying the evolution of animal immunity, due to the powerful genetic tools developed for D. melanogaster. However, Drosophila is an incredibly speciose lineage with a wide range of ecologies, natural histories, and diverse natural enemies. Surprisingly little functional work has been done on immune systems of species other than D. melanogaster. In this study, we examine the evolution of immune genes in the speciose subgenus Drosophila, which diverged from the subgenus Sophophora (that includes D. melanogaster) approximately 25-40 Mya. We focus on D. neotestacea, a woodland species used to study interactions between insects and parasitic nematodes, and combine recent transcriptomic data with infection experiments to elucidate aspects of host immunity. We found that the vast majority of genes involved in the D. melanogaster immune response are conserved in D. neotestacea, with a few interesting exceptions, particularly in antimicrobial peptides (AMPs); until recently, AMPs were not thought to evolve rapidly in Drosophila. Unexpectedly, we found a distinct diptericin in subgenus Drosophila flies that appears to have evolved under diversifying (positive) selection. We also describe the presence of the AMP drosocin, which was previously thought to be restricted to the subgenus Sophophora, in the subgenus Drosophila. We challenged two subgenus Drosophila species, D. neotestacea and D. virilis with bacterial and fungal pathogens and quantified AMP expression. While diptericin in D. virilis was induced by exposure to gram-negative bacteria, it was not induced in D. neotestacea, showing that conservation of immune genes does not necessarily imply conservation of the realized immune response. Our study lends support to the idea that invertebrate AMPs evolve rapidly, and that Drosophila harbor a diverse repertoire of AMPs with potentially important functional consequences.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 60 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 60 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 18 30%
Student > Master 9 15%
Researcher 7 12%
Student > Bachelor 3 5%
Professor > Associate Professor 3 5%
Other 8 13%
Unknown 12 20%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 29 48%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 10 17%
Immunology and Microbiology 3 5%
Medicine and Dentistry 3 5%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 1 2%
Other 2 3%
Unknown 12 20%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 October 2022.
All research outputs
#7,047,316
of 25,373,627 outputs
Outputs from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#1,578
of 3,714 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#98,951
of 320,942 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#47
of 94 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,373,627 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 71st percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,714 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.5. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 56% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 320,942 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 68% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 94 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 50% of its contemporaries.