Chemosensory Neurons Modulate the Response to Oomycete Recognition in Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how animals detect and respond to pathogen threats is central to dissecting mechanisms of host immunity. The oomycetes represent a diverse eukaryotic group infecting various hosts from nematodes to humans. We have previously shown that Caenorhabditis elegans mounts a defense response consisting of the induction of chitinase-like (chil) genes in the epidermis to combat infection by its natural oomycete pathogen Myzocytiopsis humicola. We provide here evidence that C. elegans can sense the oomycete by detecting an innocuous extract derived from animals infected with M. humicola. The oomycete recognition response (ORR) leads to changes in the cuticle and reduction in pathogen attachment, thereby increasing animal survival. We also show that TAX-2/TAX-4 function in chemosensory n

SUBMITTER: Fasseas MK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7809619 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature