Introduction

While Caenorhabditis elegans specifically responds to infection by the up-regulation of certain genes, distinct pathogens trigger the expression of a common set of genes. We applied new methods to conduct a comprehensive and comparative study of the transcriptional response of C. elegans to bacterial and fungal infection. Using tiling arrays and/or RNA-sequencing, we have characterized the genome-wide transcriptional changes that underlie the host's response to infection by three bacterial (Serratia marcescens, Enterococcus faecalis and otorhabdus luminescens) and two fungal pathogens (Drechmeria coniospora and Harposporium sp.). We developed a flexible tool, the WormBase Converter (available at http://wormbasemanager.sourceforge.net/), to allow cross-study comparisons. The new data sets provided more extensive lists of differentially regulated genes than previous studies. Annotation analysis confirmed that genes commonly up-regulated by bacterial infections are related to stress responses. We found substantial overlaps between the genes regulated upon intestinal infection by the bacterial pathogens and Harposporium, and between those regulated by Harposporium and D. coniospora, which infects the epidermis. Among the fungus-regulated genes, there was a significant bias towards genes that are evolving rapidly and potentially encode small proteins. The results obtained using new methods reveal that the response to infection in C. elegans is determined by the nature of the pathogen, the site of infection and the physiological imbalance provoked by infection. They form the basis for future functional dissection of innate immune signaling. Finally, we also propose alternative methods to identify differentially regulated genes that take into account the greater variability in lowly expressed genes.

Publications

  1. A comprehensive analysis of gene expression changes provoked by bacterial and fungal infection in C. elegans.
    Cite this
    Engelmann I, Griffon A, Tichit L, Montañana-Sanchis F, Wang G, Reinke V, Waterston RH, Hillier LW, Ewbank JJ, 2011-01-01 - PloS one

Credits

  1. Ilka Engelmann
    Developer

    Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, Université de la Méditerranée, France

  2. Aurélien Griffon
    Developer

  3. Laurent Tichit
    Developer

  4. Frédéric Montañana-Sanchis
    Developer

  5. Guilin Wang
    Developer

  6. Valerie Reinke
    Developer

  7. Robert H Waterston
    Developer

  8. Ladeana W Hillier
    Developer

  9. Jonathan J Ewbank
    Investigator

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Summary
AccessionBT006993
Tool TypeApplication
Category
PlatformsLinux/Unix
Technologies
User InterfaceTerminal Command Line
Download Count0
Submitted ByJonathan J Ewbank