QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online August 8, 2008
Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 2712-2724 (2008)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2008
doi: 10.1242/jeb.014878

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplementary Material Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Flatt, T. Articles by Silverman, N. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Flatt, T. Articles by Silverman, N. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Hormonal regulation of the humoral innate immune response in Drosophila melanogaster

Thomas Flatt¹, Andreas Heyland², Florentina Rus³, Ermelinda Porpiglia³, Chris Sherlock^3,, Rochele Yamamoto¹, Alina Garbuzov¹, Subba R. Palli⁴, Marc Tatar¹ and Neal Silverman^3,*

¹ Division of Biology and Medicine, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
² Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, N1G 2W1
³ Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01655, USA
⁴ Department of Entomology, Agricultural Science Center, College of Agriculture, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546-0091, USA

^* Corresponding author (e-mail: neal.silverman{at}umassmed.edu)

Accepted 3 June 2008

Juvenile hormone (JH) and 20-hydroxy-ecdysone (20E) are highly versatile hormones, coordinating development, growth, reproduction and aging in insects. Pulses of 20E provide key signals for initiating developmental and physiological transitions, while JH promotes or inhibits these signals in a stage-specific manner. Previous evidence suggests that JH and 20E might modulate innate immunity, but whether and how these hormones interact to regulate the immune response remains unclear. Here we show that JH and 20E have antagonistic effects on the induction of antimicrobial peptide (AMP) genes in Drosophila melanogaster. 20E pretreatment of Schneider S2^* cells promoted the robust induction of AMP genes, following immune stimulation. On the other hand, JH III, and its synthetic analogs (JHa) methoprene and pyriproxyfen, strongly interfered with this 20E-dependent immune potentiation, although these hormones did not inhibit other 20E-induced cellular changes. Similarly, in vivo analyses in adult flies confirmed that JH is a hormonal immuno-suppressor. RNA silencing of either partner of the ecdysone receptor heterodimer (EcR or Usp) in S2^* cells prevented the 20E-induced immune potentiation. In contrast, silencing methoprene-tolerant (Met), a candidate JH receptor, did not impair immuno-suppression by JH III and JHa, indicating that in this context MET is not a necessary JH receptor. Our results suggest that 20E and JH play major roles in the regulation of gene expression in response to immune challenge.

Key words: Drosophila, innate immunity, humoral immune response, antimicrobial peptides, juvenile hormone, ecdysone, hormone receptors

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. P Lazzaro and T. J Little Immunity in a variable world Phil Trans R Soc B, January 12, 2009; 364(1513): 15 - 26. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]