New role for DCR-1/dicer in Caenorhabditis elegans innate immunity against the highly virulent bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis DB27.

ABSTRACT: Bacillus thuringiensis produces toxins that target invertebrates, including Caenorhabditis elegans. Virulence of Bacillus strains is often highly specific, such that B. thuringiensis strain DB27 is highly pathogenic to C. elegans but shows no virulence for another model nematode, Pristionchus pacificus. To uncover the underlying mechanisms of the differential responses of the two nematodes to B. thuringiensis DB27 and to reveal the C. elegans defense mechanisms against this pathogen, we conducted a genetic screen for C. elegans mutants resistant to B. thuringiensis DB27. Here, we describe a B. thuringiensis DB27-resistant C. elegans mutant that is identical to nasp-1, which encodes the C. elegans homolog of the nuclear-autoantigenic-sperm protein. Gene expression analysis indicated a subst

SUBMITTER: Iatsenko I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3811748 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature