title: Changes in Caenorhabditis elegans life span and selective innate immune genes during Staphylococcus aureus infection.
abstract: Caenorhabditis elegans has been increasingly used to study the innate immunity and for the screening of microbe/host-specific pathogenic factors. Staphylococcus aureus-mediated infections with live C. elegans were performed on solid (full-lawn) and liquid assays. S. aureus required 90 ± 10 h for the complete killing of C. elegans, but the infection was started only after 32 h of exposure with 20% inoculum of S. aureus. The short time exposure studies revealed that, in 20% of inoculum, continuous exposure to the pathogen was required for the killing of nematode. In 100% of inoculum, only 8 h of exposure was sufficient to kill the C. elegans. To evaluate kinetically at the innate immune level, the regulation of representative candidate antimicrobial genes was investigated. Both semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time PCR analyses indicated the regulation of candidate immune regulatory genes of lysozyme (lys-7), cysteine protease (cpr-2), and C-type lectin (clec-60 and clec-87) family members during the course of S. aureus infections, indicating the possible contribution of the above players during the host immune response against S. aureus exposures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, 630 003, India. jebmercy@gmail.com
authors.forename: Gnanasekaran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: JebaMercy
authors.forename: Shunmugiah Karutha
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Pandian
authors.forename: Krishnaswamy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Balamurugan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D057056:Cysteine Proteases / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D015870:Gene Expression; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D037181:Lectins, C-Type / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D009113:Muramidase / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000502:physiology*; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D037181:Lectins, C-Type; D009113:Muramidase; D057056:Cysteine Proteases