{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,24]],"date-time":"2026-10-24T01:25:32Z","timestamp":1792805132090,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,9]],"date-time":"2020-03-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1583712000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and future Planning","award":["2018R1A2A2A05023367"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2018R1A2A2A05023367"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/013aysd81","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Sp\u00e4tzle family proteins activate the Toll pathway and induce antimicrobial peptide (AMP) production against microbial infections. However, the functional importance of Tmsp\u00e4tzle4 (TmSpz4) in the immune response of Tenebrio molitor has not been reported. Therefore, here, we have identified and functionally characterized the role of TmSpz4 against bacterial and fungal infections. We showed that TmSpz4 expression was significantly induced in hemocytes at 6 h post-injection with Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans. TmSpz4 knock-down significantly reduced larval survival against E. coli and C. albicans. To understand the reason for the survivability difference, the role of TmSpz4 in AMP production was examined in TmSpz4-silenced larvae following microbe injection. The AMPs that are active against Gram-negative bacteria, including TmTenecin-2, TmTenecin-4, TmAttacin-1a, TmDefensin-2, and TmCecropin-2, were significantly downregulated in response to E. coli in TmSpz4-silenced larvae. Similarly, the expression of TmTenecin-1, TmTenecin-3, TmThaumatin-like protein-1 and -2, TmDefensin-1, TmDefensin-2, and TmCecropin-2 were downregulated in response to C. albicans in TmSpz4-silenced larvae. In addition, the transcription factor NF-\u03baB (TmDorX1 and TmDorX2) expression was significantly suppression in TmSpz4-silenced larvae. In conclusion, these results suggest that TmSpz4 plays a key role in regulating immune responses of T. molitor against to E. coli and C. albicans.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms21051878","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,10]],"date-time":"2020-03-10T11:59:36Z","timestamp":1583841576000},"page":"1878","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":22,"title":["TmSpz4 Plays an Important Role in Regulating the Production of Antimicrobial Peptides in Response to Escherichia coli and Candida albicans Infections"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0119-0737","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tariku Tesfaye","family":"Edosa","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Applied Biology, Institute of Environmentally-Friendly Agriculture (IEFA), College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Korea"},{"name":"Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Ambo Agricultural Research Center, Ambo 37, Ethiopia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9277-5772","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yong Hun","family":"Jo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Applied Biology, Institute of Environmentally-Friendly Agriculture (IEFA), College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5482-1846","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maryam","family":"Keshavarz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Applied Biology, Institute of Environmentally-Friendly Agriculture (IEFA), College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Young Min","family":"Bae","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Applied Biology, Institute of Environmentally-Friendly Agriculture (IEFA), College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dong Hyun","family":"Kim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Applied Biology, Institute of Environmentally-Friendly Agriculture (IEFA), College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5604-4860","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yong Seok","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Life Science and Biotechnology, College of Natural Sciences, Soonchunhyang University, Asan city 31538, Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3621-046X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yeon Soo","family":"Han","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Applied Biology, Institute of Environmentally-Friendly Agriculture (IEFA), College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rosales, C., and Vonnie, S. 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