M3i

@article{deleury_specific_2012,
title = {Specific versus non-specific immune responses in an invertebrate species evidenced by a comparative de novo sequencing study},
author = {Emeline Deleury and Géraldine Dubreuil and Namasivayam Elangovan and Eric Wajnberg and Jean-Marc Reichhart and Benjamin Gourbal and David Duval and Olga Lucia Baron and Jérôme Gouzy and Christine Coustau},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0032512},
issn = {1932-6203},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-01-01},
journal = {PLoS ONE},
volume = {7},
number = {3},
pages = {e32512},
abstract = {Our present understanding of the functioning and evolutionary history of invertebrate innate immunity derives mostly from studies on a few model species belonging to ecdysozoa. In particular, the characterization of signaling pathways dedicated to specific responses towards fungi and Gram-positive or Gram-negative bacteria in Drosophila melanogaster challenged our original view of a non-specific immunity in invertebrates. However, much remains to be elucidated from lophotrochozoan species. To investigate the global specificity of the immune response in the fresh-water snail Biomphalaria glabrata, we used massive Illumina sequencing of 5'-end cDNAs to compare expression profiles after challenge by Gram-positive or Gram-negative bacteria or after a yeast challenge. 5'-end cDNA sequencing of the libraries yielded over 12 millions high quality reads. To link these short reads to expressed genes, we prepared a reference transcriptomic database through automatic assembly and annotation of the 758,510 redundant sequences (ESTs, mRNAs) of B. glabrata available in public databases. Computational analysis of Illumina reads followed by multivariate analyses allowed identification of 1685 candidate transcripts differentially expressed after an immune challenge, with a two fold ratio between transcripts showing a challenge-specific expression versus a lower or non-specific differential expression. Differential expression has been validated using quantitative PCR for a subset of randomly selected candidates. Predicted functions of annotated candidates (approx. 700 unisequences) belonged to a large extend to similar functional categories or protein types. This work significantly expands upon previous gene discovery and expression studies on B. glabrata and suggests that responses to various pathogens may involve similar immune processes or signaling pathways but different genes belonging to multigenic families. These results raise the question of the importance of gene duplication and acquisition of paralog functional diversity in the evolution of specific invertebrate immune responses.},
keywords = {Animals, Biomphalaria, Calmodulin, Cluster Analysis, Complementary, DNA, Expressed Sequence Tags, Ferritins, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Expression Regulation, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing, Immunity, Innate, M3i, messenger, Pattern Recognition, Phylogeny, Receptors, reichhart, RNA, Signal Transduction, Zinc Fingers},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{chen_weckle_2006,
title = {Weckle is a zinc finger adaptor of the toll pathway in dorsoventral patterning of the Drosophila embryo},
author = {Li-Ying Chen and Juinn-Chin Wang and Yann Hyvert and Hui-Ping Lin and Norbert Perrimon and Jean-Luc Imler and Jui-Chou Hsu},
doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2006.05.050},
issn = {0960-9822},
year = {2006},
date = {2006-06-01},
journal = {Current biology: CB},
volume = {16},
number = {12},
pages = {1183--1193},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The Drosophila Toll pathway takes part in both establishment of the embryonic dorsoventral axis and induction of the innate immune response in adults. Upon activation by the cytokine Spätzle, Toll interacts with the adaptor proteins DmMyD88 and Tube and the kinase Pelle and triggers degradation of the inhibitor Cactus, thus allowing the nuclear translocation of the transcription factor Dorsal/Dif. weckle (wek) was previously identified as a new dorsal group gene that encodes a putative zinc finger transcription factor. However, its role in the Toll pathway was unknown. RESULTS: Here, we isolated new wek alleles and demonstrated that cactus is epistatic to wek, which in turn is epistatic to Toll. Consistent with this, Wek localizes to the plasma membrane of embryos, independently of Toll signaling. Wek homodimerizes and associates with Toll. Moreover, Wek binds to and localizes DmMyD88 to the plasma membrane. Thus, Wek acts as an adaptor to assemble/stabilize a Toll/Wek/DmMyD88/Tube complex. Remarkably, unlike the DmMyD88/tube/pelle/cactus gene cassette of the Toll pathway, wek plays a minimal role, if any, in the immune defense against Gram-positive bacteria and fungi. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that Wek is an adaptor to link Toll and DmMyD88 and is required for efficient recruitment of DmMyD88 to Toll. Unexpectedly, wek is dispensable for innate immune response, thus revealing differences in the Toll-mediated activation of Dorsal in the embryo and Dif in the fat body of adult flies.},
keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Animals, Antigens, Biological, Body Patterning, Cell Membrane, Differentiation, dimerization, DNA-Binding Proteins, Embryo, Epistasis, Genetic, imler, Immunity, Immunologic, Innate, M3i, Models, Mutation, Nonmammalian, Phenotype, Phosphoproteins, Receptors, Signal Transducing, Toll-Like Receptors, Transcription Factors, Zinc Fingers},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}