A dual RNA-seq approach to study oral infection of the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum with the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana

In this study, we showed that T. castaneum was affected when exposed orally to spores of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana. Insect mortality started 2-4 days after conidia feeding, which is a shorter time than the 5-6 days B. bassiana typically takes to infect, colonize, and kill the host through the cuticle. Using the dual RNA-seq technique, we were able to reconstruct the gene expression pattern in both interacting organisms when few conidia are ingested by this recalcitrant insect. After mapping the total reads with the B. bassiana genome, 904 genes were identified during this process.