Journal home
Advance online publication
Current issue
Archive
Press releases
Focuses
Guide to authors
Online submissionOnline submission
For referees
Free online issue
Contact the journal
Subscribe
Advertising
work@npg
Reprints and permissions
About this site
For librarians
 
NPG Resources
Nature
Nature Reviews Immunology
Nature Medicine
Nature Cell Biology
NI Tutorial: Finding regulatory DNA regions
Signaling Gateway
Immunology & Cell Biology
Mucosal Immunology
Nature Conferences
Nature Stem Cells
NPG Subject areas
Biotechnology
Cancer
Chemistry
Clinical Medicine
Dentistry
Development
Drug Discovery
Earth Sciences
Evolution & Ecology
Genetics
Immunology
Materials Science
Medical Research
Microbiology
Molecular Cell Biology
Neuroscience
Pharmacology
Physics
Browse all publications
Article
Nature Immunology  5, 488 - 494 (2004)
Published online: 28 March 2004; | doi:10.1038/ni1060

TLR-independent control of innate immunity in Caenorhabditis elegans by the TIR domain adaptor protein TIR-1, an ortholog of human SARM

Carole Couillault1, Nathalie Pujol1, Jérôme Reboul2, Laurence Sabatier3, Jean-François Guichou4, Yuji Kohara5 & Jonathan J Ewbank1

1  Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale/Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Université de la Méditerranée, Case 906, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France.

2  Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U119, Institut Paoli Calmette, 13009 Marseille, France.

3  Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, UPR 9022, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 15 rue Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France.

4  Centre de Biochimie Structurale, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR 5048, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale UMR 554, Université de Montpellier 1, 29, rue de Navacelles, 34090 Montpellier Cedex, France.

5  National Institute of Genetics, Mishima 411, Japan.

Correspondence should be addressed to Jonathan J Ewbank ewbank@ciml.univ-mrs.fr.
Both plants and animals respond to infection by synthesizing compounds that directly inhibit or kill invading pathogens. We report here the identification of infection-inducible antimicrobial peptides in Caenorhabditis elegans. Expression of two of these peptides, NLP-29 and NLP-31, was differentially regulated by fungal and bacterial infection and was controlled in part by tir-1, which encodes an ortholog of SARM, a Toll−interleukin 1 receptor (TIR) domain protein. Inactivation of tir-1 by RNA interference caused increased susceptibility to infection. We identify protein partners for TIR-1 and show that the small GTPase Rab1 and the f subunit of ATP synthase participate specifically in the control of antimicrobial peptide gene expression. As the activity of tir-1 was independent of the single nematode Toll-like receptor, TIR-1 may represent a component of a previously uncharacterized, but conserved, innate immune signaling pathway.

MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Dissecting worm immunity

Nature Immunology News and Views (01 May 2004)

DisSARMing Toll-like receptor signaling

Nature Immunology News and Views (01 Oct 2006)

 Top
Abstract
Previous | Next
Table of contents
Full textFull text
Download PDFDownload PDF
Send to a friendSend to a friend

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs

Figures & Tables
Supplementary info
See also: News and Views by Hodgkin
Export citation
natureproducts

Search buyers guide:

 
ADVERTISEMENT
 
Nature Immunology
ISSN: 1529-2908
EISSN: 1529-2916
Journal home | Advance online publication | Current issue | Archive | Press releases | Focuses | For authors | Online submission | Permissions | For referees | Free online issue | About the journal | Contact the journal | Subscribe | Advertising | work@npg | naturereprints | About this site | For librarians
Nature Publishing Group, publisher of Nature, and other science journals and reference works©2004 Nature Publishing Group | Privacy policy