The Cat Flea (Ctenocephalides felis) Immune Deficiency Signaling Pathway Regulates Rickettsia typhi Infection
ABSTRACTRickettsiaspecies are obligate intracellular bacteria with both conserved and lineage-specific strategies for invading and surviving within eukaryotic cells. One variable component ofRickettsiabiology involves arthropod vectors: for instance, typhus group rickettsiae are principally vectored by insects (i.e., lice and fleas), whereas spotted fever group rickettsiae are exclusively vectored by ticks. For flea-borneRickettsia typhi, the etiological agent of murine typhus, research on vertebrate host biology is facilitated using cell lines and animal models. However, due to the lack of any stable flea cell line or a published flea genome sequence, little is known regardingR. typhibiology in flea vectors that, importantly, do not suffer lethality due toR. typhiinfection. To address if fleas combat rickettsial infection, we characterized the cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis) innate immune response toR. typhi. Initially, we determined thatR. typhiinfectsDrosophilacells and increases antimicrobial peptide (AMP) gene expression, indicating immune pathway activation. While bioinformatics analysis of theC. felistranscriptome identified homologs to all of theDrosophilaimmune deficiency (IMD) and Toll pathway components, an AMP gene expression profile inDrosophilacells indicated IMD pathway activation upon rickettsial infection. Accordingly, we assessedR. typhi-mediated flea IMD pathway activationin vivousing small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated knockdown. Knockdown ofRelishandImdincreasedR. typhiinfection levels, implicating the IMD pathway as a critical regulator ofR. typhiburden inC. felis. These data suggest that targeting the IMD pathway could minimize the spread ofR. typhi, and potentially other human pathogens, vectored by fleas.