A conserved role for a GATA transcription factor in regulating epithelial innate immune responses.

ABSTRACT: Innate immunity is an ancient and conserved defense mechanism. Although host responses toward various pathogens have been delineated, how these responses are orchestrated in a whole animal is less understood. Through an unbiased genome-wide study performed in Caenorhabditis elegans, we identified a conserved function for endodermal GATA transcription factors in regulating local epithelial innate immune responses. Gene expression and functional RNAi-based analyses identified the tissue-specific GATA transcription factor ELT-2 as a major regulator of an early intestinal protective response to infection with the human bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In the adult worm, ELT-2 is required specifically for infection responses and survival on pathogen but makes no significant contributi

SUBMITTER: Shapira M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1599916 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature