The mechanism utilized by Toxoneuron nigriceps in inhibiting the host immune system

Abstract

Insect parasitic factors of both maternal and embryonic origin allow the endoparasitoid progeny to elude the humoral and cellular immune system responses of their host. Endoparasitoid wasps of lepidopteran larval stages inject, along with venom and ovarian proteins, Polydnavirus particles acting in synergy with all other factors in host regulation for parasitism success. To date, the molecular mechanisms used by endoparasitoid to circumvent the host immune system are little known. Neverthless, several of these strategies are conserved through the wasp parasitoid species. Heliothis virescens is a noctuid moth, host of the endophagous parasitoid Toxoneuron nigriceps. The first observed effect of parasitism is immune system suppression, as direct consequence of the array of host regulation factors, both of embryonic and maternal origin. This review describes the contribution of all the parasitic components during alterations of the host immune response observed after oviposition by T. nigriceps.