Protection against microbial infection in eukaryotes is provided by diverse cellular and
molecular mechanisms. Here, we present a comparative view of the antiviral activity of virus …

Since the discovery of antimicrobial peptide responses 40 years ago, the fruit fly Drosophila
melanogaster has proven to be a powerful model for the study of innate immunity. Early work …

Insects are infected by a wide array of viruses some of which are insect restricted and
pathogenic, and some of which are transmitted by biting insects to vertebrates. The medical …

Highlights•RNAi is an important antiviral defense mechanism in insects.•All major classes of
viruses are targets of the antiviral RNAi response.•Viruses encode suppressors that interfere …

The Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT) signalling
pathway controls multiple biological processes in metazoan development and tissue …

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) with antiviral activity (antiviral peptides: AVPs) have become
a research hotspot and already show immense potential to become pharmaceutically …

Pathogen entry route can have a strong impact on the result of microbial infections in
different hosts, including insects. Drosophila melanogaster has been a successful model …

Drosophila has been extensively used to model the human blood-immune system, as both
systems share many developmental and immune response mechanisms. However, while …

Viruses represent a major threat to all animals, which defend themselves through induction
of a large set of virus-stimulated genes that collectively control the infection. In vertebrates …

Highlights•Insect RNA interference (RNAi) pathways detect and restrict viruses.•Dicer-2
detects diverse viral dsRNA signatures and initiates the RNAi pathway.•RNAi may play a …