ArticleThe Journal of biological chemistry2012
Hindgut innate immunity and regulation of fecal microbiota through melanization in insects.
Article in The Journal of biological chemistry, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 121 citations in OpenAlex.
- N-Acetylcysteine Attacks Phenoloxidase to Inhibit Insect Melanization and Boost Fungal Virulence.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Insect proteins and peptides: preparation, bioactivities, and applications.Food science of animal resources · 2026Article
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- Effects of synergistic fermentation of tea bee pollen with bacteria and enzymes on growth and intestinal health ofCurrent research in microbial sciences · 2025Article
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- An enteric ultrastructural surface atlas of the model insectiScience · 2024Article
- The gut microbiota induces melanin deposits that act as substrates forMicrobiology spectrum · 2023Article
- Nanoemulsions and Solid Microparticles Containing Pentyl Cinnamate to ControlInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
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- Lepidopteran insects: emerging model organisms to study infection by enteropathogens.Folia microbiologica · 2023Review
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- Beauveria bassiana interacts with gut and hemocytes to manipulate Aedes aegypti immunity.Parasites & vectors · 2023Article
- Recent trends in insect gut immunity.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- The Intestinal Immune Defense System in Insects.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Silencing of the Prophenoloxidase GeneInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Immune Defense Mechanism ofInsects · 2022Article
- Involvement of Epidermis Cell Proliferation in Defense AgainstFrontiers in immunology · 2021Article
- The Tripartite Interaction of Host Immunity-Toxins · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many insects eat the green leaves of plants but excrete black feces in an as yet unknown mechanism. Insects cannot avoid ingesting pathogens with food that will be specifically detected by the midgut immune system. However, just as in mammals, many pathogens can still escape the insect midgut immune system and arrive in the hindgut, where they are excreted out with the feces. Here we show that the melanization of hindgut content induced by prophenoloxidase, a key enzyme that induces the production of melanin around invaders and at wound sites, is the last line of immune defense to clear bacteria before feces excretion. We used the silkworm Bombyx mori as a model and found that prophenoloxidase produced by hindgut cells is secreted into the hindgut contents. Several experiments were done to clearly demonstrate that the blackening of the insect feces was due to activated phenoloxidase, which served to regulate the number of bacteria in the hindgut. Our analysis of the silkworm hindgut prophenoloxidase discloses the natural secret of why the phytophagous insect feces is black and provides insight into hindgut innate immunity, which is still rather unclear in mammals.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.