RRC ID 80752
Author Dhakal A, Salim C, Skelly M, Amichan Y, Lamm AT, Hundley HA.
Title ADARs regulate cuticle collagen expression and promote survival to pathogen infection.
Journal BMC Biol
Abstract BACKGROUND:In all organisms, the innate immune system defends against pathogens through basal expression of molecules that provide critical barriers to invasion and inducible expression of effectors that combat infection. The adenosine deaminase that act on RNA (ADAR) family of RNA-binding proteins has been reported to influence innate immunity in metazoans. However, studies on the susceptibility of ADAR mutant animals to infection are largely lacking.
RESULTS:Here, by analyzing adr-1 and adr-2 null mutants in well-established slow-killing assays, we find that both Caenorhabditis elegans ADARs are important for organismal survival to gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, all of which are pathogenic to humans. Furthermore, our high-throughput sequencing and genetic analysis reveal that ADR-1 and ADR-2 function in the same pathway to regulate collagen expression. Consistent with this finding, our scanning electron microscopy studies indicate adr-1;adr-2 mutant animals also have altered cuticle morphology prior to pathogen exposure.
CONCLUSIONS:Our data uncover a critical role of the C. elegans ADAR family of RNA-binding proteins in promoting cuticular collagen expression, which represents a new post-transcriptional regulatory node that influences the extracellular matrix. In addition, we provide the first evidence that ADAR mutant animals have altered susceptibility to infection with several opportunistic human pathogens, suggesting a broader role of ADARs in altering physical barriers to infection to influence innate immunity.
Volume 22(1)
Pages 37
Published 2024-2-16
DOI 10.1186/s12915-024-01840-1
PII 10.1186/s12915-024-01840-1
PMID 38360623
PMC PMC10870475
MeSH Adenosine Deaminase / genetics Adenosine Deaminase / metabolism Animals Caenorhabditis elegans* / genetics Caenorhabditis elegans* / metabolism Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins* / genetics Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins* / metabolism Collagen / genetics Collagen / metabolism Humans RNA Editing RNA-Binding Proteins / genetics RNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism
Resource
C.elegans tm668