Restrained Wnt signaling pathway by enhanced EsGSK3β phosphorylation activity facilitates the infection of intracellular bacterium Spiroplasma and leads to neuropathic diseases in crustaceans. Restrained Wnt signaling pathway by enhanced EsGSK3β phosphorylation activity facilitates the infection of intracellular bacterium Spiroplasma and leads to neuropathic diseases in crustaceans

To determine how Wnt-β-catenin regulates the innate immune response in crab hemocytes, Esβ-catenin and EsGSK3β RNA interference de novo transcriptomic analysis was performed to identify the innate immune-related genes regulated by this pathway. Venn analysis of differentially transcribed genes from Esβ-catenin-dsRNA vs. GFP-dsRNA (significantly downregulated) and EsGSK3β-dsRNA vs. GFP-dsRNA (significantly upregulated) of the screening generated 434 candidates. KEGG enrichment analysis of those candidate genes showed that many innate immune-related genes belonged to the Toll and IMD signaling pathways. Overall design: Transcriptomic analysis was performed to identify the down-regulated genes after Esβ-catenin RNAi and up-regualted genes after EsGSK3β RNAi. Each experiment was repeated three times. Venn analysis of differentially transcribed genes from Esβ-catenin-dsRNA vs. GFP-dsRNA (significantly downregulated) and EsGSK3β-dsRNA vs. GFP-dsRNA (significantly upregulated) to identify the target innate immune-related genes whose transcription was induced by Esβ-catenin and whose transcription was suppressed by EsGSK3β.