The impact of Co-infection with two disparate parasites on gene expression in the confused flour beetle

Eugregarines cause non-pathogenic persistent infections in the gut of flour beetlespecies. Despite being relatively benign, these infections might elicit an immuneresponse from the beetle and alter the gene expression in the affected tissue.Therefore, infections with eugregarines have the potential to alter the susceptibilityto a secondary parasite that infects via the same route. Here, we exposedTribolium confusum larvae to eugregarines by supplementing their diet with frasscontaining shed gametocysts. A subsample was then septically infected withBacillus thuringiensis, an obligate killer. We collected samples at different timepoints during the acute infection but before the onset of mortality. We performedRNA sequencing to investigate, how a persisting eugregarine infection alters theresponse to a septic bacterial infection over the first twelve hours post exposure.