scholarly journals The Shift of the Intestinal Microbiome in the Innate Immunity-Deficient Mutant rde-1 Strain of C. elegans upon Orsay Virus Infection

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Guo ◽  
Zhe Xun ◽  
Stephanie R. Coffman ◽  
Feng Chen
Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1161
Author(s):  
Yuqing Huang ◽  
Mark G. Sterken ◽  
Koen van Zwet ◽  
Lisa van Sluijs ◽  
Gorben P. Pijlman ◽  
...  

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been a versatile model for understanding the molecular responses to abiotic stress and pathogens. In particular, the response to heat stress and virus infection has been studied in detail. The Orsay virus (OrV) is a natural virus of C. elegans and infection leads to intracellular infection and proteostatic stress, which activates the intracellular pathogen response (IPR). IPR related gene expression is regulated by the genes pals-22 and pals-25, which also control thermotolerance and immunity against other natural pathogens. So far, we have a limited understanding of the molecular responses upon the combined exposure to heat stress and virus infection. We test the hypothesis that the response of C. elegans to OrV infection and heat stress are co-regulated and may affect each other. We conducted a combined heat-stress-virus infection assay and found that after applying heat stress, the susceptibility of C. elegans to OrV was decreased. This difference was found across different wild types of C. elegans. Transcriptome analysis revealed a list of potential candidate genes associated with heat stress and OrV infection. Subsequent mutant screens suggest that pals-22 provides a link between viral response and heat stress, leading to enhanced OrV tolerance of C. elegans after heat stress.


mBio ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongbing Jiang ◽  
Kevin Chen ◽  
Luis E. Sandoval ◽  
Christian Leung ◽  
David Wang

ABSTRACT Many fundamental biological discoveries have been made in Caenorhabditis elegans. The discovery of Orsay virus has enabled studies of host-virus interactions in this model organism. To identify host factors critical for Orsay virus infection, we designed a forward genetic screen that utilizes a virally induced green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter. Following chemical mutagenesis, two Viro (virus induced reporter off) mutants that failed to express GFP were mapped to sid-3, a nonreceptor tyrosine kinase, and B0280.13 (renamed viro-2), an ortholog of human Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP). Both mutants yielded Orsay virus RNA levels comparable to that of the residual input virus, suggesting that they are not permissive for Orsay virus replication. In addition, we demonstrated that both genes affect an early prereplication stage of Orsay virus infection. Furthermore, it is known that the human ortholog of SID-3, activated CDC42-associated kinase (ACK1/TNK2), is capable of phosphorylating human WASP, suggesting that VIRO-2 may be a substrate for SID-3 in C. elegans. A targeted RNA interference (RNAi) knockdown screen further identified the C. elegans gene nck-1, which has a human ortholog that interacts with TNK2 and WASP, as required for Orsay virus infection. Thus, genetic screening in C. elegans identified critical roles in virus infection for evolutionarily conserved genes in a known human pathway. IMPORTANCE Orsay virus is the only known virus capable of naturally infecting the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, which shares many evolutionarily conserved genes with humans. We exploited the robust genetic tractability of C. elegans to identify three host genes, sid-3, viro-2, and nck-1, which are essential for Orsay virus infection. Mutant animals that lack these three genes are highly defective in viral replication. Strikingly, the human orthologs of these three genes, activated CDC42-associated kinase (TNK2), Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP), and noncatalytic region of tyrosine kinase adaptor protein 1 (NCK1) are part of a known signaling pathway in mammals. These results suggest that TNK2, WASP, and NCK1 may play important roles in mammalian virus infection. IMPORTANCE Orsay virus is the only known virus capable of naturally infecting the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, which shares many evolutionarily conserved genes with humans. We exploited the robust genetic tractability of C. elegans to identify three host genes, sid-3, viro-2, and nck-1, which are essential for Orsay virus infection. Mutant animals that lack these three genes are highly defective in viral replication. Strikingly, the human orthologs of these three genes, activated CDC42-associated kinase (TNK2), Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP), and noncatalytic region of tyrosine kinase adaptor protein 1 (NCK1) are part of a known signaling pathway in mammals. These results suggest that TNK2, WASP, and NCK1 may play important roles in mammalian virus infection.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark G. Sterken ◽  
Lisa van Sluijs ◽  
Yiru A. Wang ◽  
Wannisa Ritmahan ◽  
Mitra L. Gultom ◽  
...  

Host-pathogen interactions play a major role in evolutionary selection and shape natural genetic variation. The genetically distinct Caenorhabditis elegans strains, Bristol N2 and Hawaiian CB4856, are differentially susceptible to the Orsay virus (OrV). Here we report the dissection of the genetic architecture of susceptibility to OrV infection. We compare OrV infection in the relatively resistant wild-type CB4856 strain to the more susceptible canonical N2 strain. To gain insight into the genetic architecture of viral susceptibility, 52 fully sequenced recombinant inbred lines (CB4856 x N2 RILs) were exposed to OrV. This led to the identification of two loci on chromosome IV associated with OrV resistance. To verify the two loci and gain additional insight into the genetic architecture controlling virus infection, introgression lines (ILs) that together cover chromosome IV, were exposed to OrV. Of the 27 ILs used, 17 had an CB4856 introgression in an N2 background and 10 had an N2 introgression in a CB4856 background. Infection of the ILs confirmed and fine-mapped the locus underlying variation in OrV susceptibility and we found that a single nucleotide polymorphism in cul-6 may contribute to the difference in OrV susceptibility between N2 and CB4856. An allele swap experiment showed the strain CB4856 became as susceptible as the N2 strain by having an N2 cul-6 allele, although having the CB4856 cul-6 allele did not increase resistance in N2. Additionally, we found that multiple strains with non-overlapping introgressions showed a distinct infection phenotype from the parental strain, indicating that there are punctuated locations on chromosome IV determining OrV susceptibility. Thus, our findings reveal the genetic complexity of OrV susceptibility in C. elegans and suggest that viral susceptibility is governed by multiple genes. Importance Genetic variation determines the viral susceptibility of hosts. Yet, pinpointing which genetic variants determine viral susceptibility remains challenging. Here, we have exploited the genetic tractability of the model organism C. elegans to dissect the genetic architecture of Orsay virus infection. Our results provide novel insight into natural determinants of Orsay virus infection.


mBio ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie R. Coffman ◽  
Jinfeng Lu ◽  
Xunyang Guo ◽  
Jing Zhong ◽  
Hongshan Jiang ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Dicer enzymes process virus-specific double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) into small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) to initiate specific antiviral defense by related RNA interference (RNAi) pathways in plants, insects, nematodes, and mammals. Antiviral RNAi in Caenorhabditis elegans requires Dicer-related helicase 1 (DRH-1), not found in plants and insects but highly homologous to mammalian retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I)-like receptors (RLRs), intracellular viral RNA sensors that trigger innate immunity against RNA virus infection. However, it remains unclear if DRH-1 acts analogously to initiate antiviral RNAi in C. elegans . Here, we performed a forward genetic screen to characterize antiviral RNAi in C. elegans . Using a mapping-by-sequencing strategy, we uncovered four loss-of-function alleles of drh-1 , three of which caused mutations in the helicase and C-terminal domains conserved in RLRs. Deep sequencing of small RNAs revealed an abundant population of Dicer-dependent virus-derived small interfering RNAs (vsiRNAs) in drh-1 single and double mutant animals after infection with Orsay virus, a positive-strand RNA virus. These findings provide further genetic evidence for the antiviral function of DRH-1 and illustrate that DRH-1 is not essential for the sensing and Dicer-mediated processing of the viral dsRNA replicative intermediates. Interestingly, vsiRNAs produced by drh-1 mutants were mapped overwhelmingly to the terminal regions of the viral genomic RNAs, in contrast to random distribution of vsiRNA hot spots when DRH-1 is functional. As RIG-I translocates on long dsRNA and DRH-1 exists in a complex with Dicer, we propose that DRH-1 facilitates the biogenesis of vsiRNAs in nematodes by catalyzing translocation of the Dicer complex on the viral long dsRNA precursors. IMPORTANCE The helicase and C-terminal domains of mammalian RLRs sense intracellular viral RNAs to initiate the interferon-regulated innate immunity against RNA virus infection. Both of the domains from human RIG-I can substitute for the corresponding domains of DRH-1 to mediate antiviral RNAi in C. elegans , suggesting an analogous role for DRH-1 as an intracellular dsRNA sensor to initiate antiviral RNAi. Here, we developed a forward genetic screen for the identification of host factors required for antiviral RNAi in C. elegans . Characterization of four distinct drh-1 mutants obtained from the screen revealed that DRH-1 did not function to initiate antiviral RNAi. We show that DRH-1 acted in a downstream step to enhance Dicer-dependent biogenesis of viral siRNAs in C. elegans . As mammals produce Dicer-dependent viral siRNAs to target RNA viruses, our findings suggest a possible role for mammalian RLRs and interferon signaling in the biogenesis of viral siRNAs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 89 (23) ◽  
pp. 12035-12046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyson Ashe ◽  
Peter Sarkies ◽  
Jérémie Le Pen ◽  
Mélanie Tanguy ◽  
Eric A. Miska

ABSTRACTAntiviral RNA-mediated silencing (RNA interference [RNAi]) acts as a powerful innate immunity defense in plants, invertebrates, and mammals. InCaenorhabditis elegans, RNAi is systemic; i.e., RNAi silencing signals can move between cells and tissues. Furthermore, RNAi effects can be inherited transgenerationally and may last for many generations. Neither the biological relevance of systemic RNAi nor transgenerational RNAi is currently understood. Here we examined the role of both pathways in the protection ofC. elegansfrom viral infection. We studied the Orsay virus, a positive-strand RNA virus related toNodaviridaeand the first and only virus known to infectC. elegans. Immunity to Orsay virus infection requires the RNAi pathway. Surprisingly, we found that genes required for systemic or transgenerational RNAi did not have a role in antiviral defense. Furthermore, we found that Orsay virus infection did not elicit a systemic RNAi response even when a target for RNAi was provided by using transgenes. Finally, we show that viral siRNAs, the effectors of RNAi, are not inherited to a level that provides any significant resistance to viral infection in the next generation. We conclude that systemic or transgenerational RNAi does not play a role in the defense against natural Orsay virus infection. Furthermore, our data suggest that there is a qualitative difference between experimental RNAi and antiviral RNAi. Our data are consistent with a model of systemic and transgenerational RNAi that requires a nuclear or germ line component that is lacking in almost all RNA virus infections.IMPORTANCESince its discovery inCaenorhabditis elegans, RNAi has proven a valuable scientific tool in many organisms. InC. elegans, exogenous RNAi spreads throughout the organism and can be passed between generations; however, there has been controversy as to the endogenous role(s) that the RNAi pathway plays. One endogenous role for which spreading both within the infected organism and between generations would be advantageous is a role in viral defense. In plants, antiviral RNAi is systemic and the spread of RNAi between cells provides protection against subsequent viral infection. Here we investigated this by using the only naturally occurring virus known to infectC. elegans, Orsay virus, and surprisingly found that, in contrast to the exogenous RNAi pathway, the antiviral RNAi response targeted against this virus does not spread systemically throughout the organism and cannot be passed between generations. These results suggest that there are differences between the two pathways that remain to be discovered.


2020 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 489
Author(s):  
B.R. Wimalasiri-Yapa ◽  
F. Frentiu ◽  
L. Stassen ◽  
R. Gumiel

Blood ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 122 (15) ◽  
pp. 2591-2599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Heidegger ◽  
David Anz ◽  
Nicolas Stephan ◽  
Bernadette Bohn ◽  
Tina Herbst ◽  
...  

Key Points Systemic virus infection leads to rapid disruption of the Peyer’s patches but not of peripheral lymph nodes. Virus-associated innate immune activation and type I IFN release blocks trafficking of B cells to Peyer’s patches.


2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Buonaguro ◽  
Annacarmen Petrizzo ◽  
Maria Lina Tornesello ◽  
Franco M Buonaguro

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