Daphnia galeata responds to the exposure to an ichthyosporean gut parasite by down-regulation of immunity and lipid metabolism

BackgroundRegulatory circuits of infection in the emerging experimental model system, water flea Daphnia and their microparasites, remain largely unknown. Here we provide the first molecular insights into the response of Daphnia galeatato its highly virulent and common parasite Caullerya mesnili, an ichthyosporean that infects the gut epithelium. We generated a transcriptomic dataset using RNAseq from parasite-exposed (vs. control) Daphnia, at two time points (4 and 48h) after parasite exposure.ResultsWe found a down-regulation of metabolism and immunity-related genes, at 48h (but not 4h) after parasite exposure. These genes are involved in lipid metabolism and fatty acid biosynthesis, as well as microbe recognition (e.g. c-type lectins) and pathogen attack (e.g. gut chitin).ConclusionsGeneral metabolic suppression implies host energy shift from reproduction to survival, which is in agreement with the known drastic reduction in Daphnia fecundity after Caullerya infection. The down-regulation of gut chitin indicates a possible interaction between the peritrophic matrix and the evading host immune system. Our study provides the first description of host transcriptional responses in this very promising host-parasite experimental system