Data from: Physiological and transcriptional immune responses of a non-model arthropod to infection with different entomopathogenic groups

<p>Insect immune responses to multiple pathogen groups including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and entomopathogenic nematodes have traditionally been documented in model insects such as <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em>, or medically important insects such as <em>Aedes aegypti</em>. Despite their potential importance in understanding the efficacy of pathogens as biological control agents, these responses are infrequently studied in agriculturally important pests. Additionally, studies often neglect to investigate responses against different pathogen groups, and typically focus on only a single time point during infection. As such, a robust understanding of immune system responses over the time of infection is often lacking. This study was conducted to understand how 3^rd instar larvae of the major insect pest <em>Helicoverpa zea</em> responded over time to infection by four different pathogenic groups: viruses, bacteria, fungi, and entomopathogenic nematodes. Physiological immune responses were assessed at 4-, 24-, and 48-hours post-infection by measuring hemolymph phenoloxidase concentrations, hemolymph prophenoloxidase concentrations, hemocyte counts, and encapsulation ability. Transcriptional immune responses were measured at 24-, 48-, and 72-hours post-infection by quantifying the expression of <em>PPO2</em>, <em>Argonaute-2</em>, <em>JNK</em>, <em>Dorsal</em>, and <em>Relish</em>. This gene set covers the major known immune pathways: phenoloxidase cascade, siRNA, JNK pathway, Toll pathway, and IMD pathway. Our results indicate <em>H. zea</em> has an extreme immune response to <em>Bacillus thuringiensis</em> bacteria, a mild response to <em>Helicoverpa armigera</em> nucleopolyhedrovirus, and no detectable response to either the fungus <em>Beauveria bassiana</em> or <em>Steinernema carpocapsae </em>nematodes.</p>