Shelley A Adamo, Emily Corkum, Jongseok Kim, Tingyat M Lee, Dylan W Miller, Sungwoo Song, Christopher Wright, Isaac D Zacher, Jeffrey S Zbarsky, Laura E McMillan
Although skeletal muscle is a specialized tissue that provides the motor for movement, it also participates in other functions, including the immune response. However, little is known about the effects of this multi-tasking on muscle. We show that muscle loses some of its capacity while it is participating in the immune response. Caterpillars (Manduca sexta) were exposed to an immune challenge, predator stress, or a combination of immune challenge and predator stress. The expression of immune genes (toll-1, domeless, cactus, tube and attacin) increased in body wall muscle after caterpillar exposure to an immune challenge...
June 19, 2023: Journal of Experimental Biology