The endoparasitoid Campoletis chlorideae induces a hemolytic factor in the herbivorous insect Helicoverpa armigera

Although lysis of invading organisms is a major innate form of immunity used by invertebrates, it remains unclear whether herbivorous insects have hemolysin or not. To address this general question, we tested the hemolytic (HL) activity of the hemolymph and tissue extracts from various stages of the polyphagous insect Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) against the erythrocytes from chicken, duck, and rabbit. An HL activity was identified in the hemolymph of H. armigera larvae. Further studies demonstrated that the HL activity is proteinaceous as it was precipitable by deproteinizing agents. Hemolysins were found in Helicoverpa egg, larva, pupa, and adult, but the activity was higher in feeding larvae than in molting or newly molted larvae. Hemolysins were distributed among a variety of larval tissues including salivary gland, fat body, epidermis, midgut, or testes, but the highest activity was found in salivary gland and fat body. Relative to nonparasitized larvae, parasitization of H. armigera larvae by the endoparasitoid Campoletis chlorideae Uchida induced a 3.4-fold increase in the HL activity in the plasma of parasitized host at day two postparasitization. The present study shows the presence of a parasitoid inducible HL factor in the parasitized insect. The HL activity increased significantly in H. armigera larvae at 12 and 24 h postinjection with Escherichia coli. We infer the HL factor(s) is inducible or due to de novo synthesis, which means that the HL factor(s) is associated with insect immune response by inhibiting or clearance of invading organisms.