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Caenorhabditis elegans – Bacillus thuringiensis interactions: new insights into mechanisms of host resistance and pathogen virulence

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Iatsenko,  I       
Department Integrative Evolutionary Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Max Planck Society;

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Boichenko,  I       
Department Protein Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Max Planck Society;
Conservation of Protein Structure and Function Group, Department Protein Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Max Planck Society;

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Sommer,  RJ       
Department Integrative Evolutionary Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Max Planck Society;

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Citation

Iatsenko, I., Boichenko, I., & Sommer, R. (2014). Caenorhabditis elegans – Bacillus thuringiensis interactions: new insights into mechanisms of host resistance and pathogen virulence. In 47th Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology and International Congress on Invertebrate Pathology and Microbial Control (pp. 62).


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0010-807A-4
Abstract
Genetically tractable model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been successfully used in the host-pathogen interaction studies and helped to uncover conserved virulence factors of clinically relevant pathogens. At the same time interactions of this nematode with its natural pathogens are poorly investigated. Bacteria from the genus Bacillus are among potential natural pathogens of the nematodes. Therefore, previously we isolated 768 Bacillus strains and tested them for the virulence to nematodes. Although only 3% of tested Bacillus strains were pathogenic, one strain called B. thuringiensis DB27 exhibited extreme virulence to C. elegans. Currently we are trying to tackle both sides of this host- pathogen equation and aiming to identify virulence factors of B. thuringiensis DB27 as well as C. elegans defense mechanisms. First, combining plasmid-curing and genome sequencing, we discovered that novel nematicidal Cry21 toxins with synergistic activity are the main nematicidal factors of DB27. We expressed these novel toxins in E. coli and confirmed their activity against C. elegans. Importantly, these toxins are also active against other free-living and animal parasitic nematodes, suggesting their potential application against parasitic nematodes. Our parallel work on the host side led to the discovery of C. elegans novel innate immunity pathway involved in the defense against pathogens. Specifically, we identified novel function for Dicer in C. elegans antibacterial innate immunity and showed that this function is largely associated with microRNA processing. Taken together, our reciprocal studies uncovered a previously unknown role for DCR-1/Dicer in C. elegans antibacterial immunity as well as identified novel nematicidal toxins.