Proteomic Assessment of Dung Beetle, Copris tripartitus Immune Response

Dung beetle larvae at the 3rd instar were injected with lipopolysaccaride and inducible proteins were examined within a pI level of 3-10 and a size level by proteomics, including 1-D SDS PAGE analysis and antibacterial assay. The immune infected larvae extracts provided seven protein bands in one-dimensional electrophoresis and its antibacterial activity also checked. Hemolymph protein from immune infected larvae of the dung beetle were separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and compared with those from native larvae. In 2-D gel electrophoresis, we detected 63 immune infected unique and 32 up-regulated proteins, and 36 proteins that were down-regulated or not present in treated gel. Ten protein spots from unique proteins and those presented as different level of abundance in infected and native larvae were specially expressed. These differentially expressed proteins were proposed to be involved in the defense mechanism against microorganism.