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. 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.