Effector-triggered immunity (ETI) enables hosts to react to pathogens by monitoring few key cellular processes. ETI responses are assumed to be similar toward related pathogen effectors. However, recent evidence from the invertebrate model Caenorhabditis elegans and pore-forming toxins indicates a much more complex and specific ETI than previously anticipated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFControlling nematode-caused diseases that affect cattle and crops world-wide remains a critical economic issue, owing to the lack of effective sustainable interventions. The interdependence of roundworms and their environmental microbes, including their microbiota, offers an opportunity for developing more targeted anthelminthic strategies. However, paucity of information and a currently narrow understanding of nematode-microbe interactions limited to specific infection contexts has precluded us from exploiting it.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith its small size, short lifespan, and easy genetics, Caenorhabditis elegans offers a convenient platform to study the impact of microbial isolates on host physiology. It also fluoresces in blue when dying, providing a convenient means of pinpointing death. This property has been exploited to develop high-throughput label-free C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCells can detect pathogens through guard proteins that sense disturbances in core cellular processes, but the exact mechanisms often remain elusive. In this issue of Immunity, Orzalli et al. identify Bcl-2 family members as guard proteins that detect virus-induced translational inhibition and induce pyroptosis in human keratinocytes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFmicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA-molecules that influence translation by binding to the target gene mRNA. Many miRNAs are found in nested arrangements within larger protein-coding host genes. miRNAs and host genes in a nested arrangement are often transcribed simultaneously, which may indicate that both have similar functions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn C. elegans, 283 clec genes encode a highly diverse family of C-type lectin-like domain (CTLD) proteins. Since vertebrate CTLD proteins have characterized functions in defense responses against pathogens and since expression of C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been extensively used as a model for the study of innate immune responses against bacterial pathogens. While it is well established that the worm mounts distinct transcriptional responses to different bacterial species, it is still unclear in how far it can fine-tune its response to different strains of a single pathogen species, especially if the strains vary in virulence and infection dynamics. To rectify this knowledge gap, we systematically analyzed the C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImmune recognition of molecular patterns from microorganisms or self-altered cells activate effector responses that neutralize and eliminate these potentially harmful agents. In virtually every metazoan group the process is carried out by pattern recognition receptors, typically constituted by immunoglobulin (Ig), leucine rich repeat (LRR), and/or lectin domains. In order to get insights into the ancestral immune recognition repertoire of animals, we have sequenced the transcriptome of bacterially challenged colonies of the model cnidarian Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus using the Illumina platform.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA key question in current immunity research is how the innate immune system can generate high levels of specificity. Evidence is accumulating that invertebrates, which exclusively rely on innate defense mechanisms, can differentiate between pathogens on the species and even strain level. In this review, we identify and discuss the particular potential of C-type lectin-like domain (CTLD) proteins to generate high immune specificity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe viability of coral reefs worldwide has been seriously compromised in the last few decades due in part to the emergence of coral diseases of infectious nature. Despite important efforts to understand the etiology and the contribution of environmental factors associated to coral diseases, the mechanisms of immune response in corals are just beginning to be studied systematically. In this study, we analyzed the set of conserved immune response genes of the Caribbean reef-building coral Pseudodiploria strigosa by Illumina-based transcriptome sequencing and annotation of healthy colonies challenged with whole live Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.
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