Muscles provide protection during microbial infection by activating innate immune response pathways in Drosophila and zebrafish.
Muscle contraction brings about movement and locomotion in animals. However, muscles have also been implicated in several atypical physiological processes including immune response. The role of muscles in immunity and the mechanism involved has not yet been deciphered. In this paper, using Drosophila indirect flight muscles (IFMs) as a model, we show that muscles are immune-responsive tissues. Flies with defective IFMs are incapable of mounting a potent humoral immune response. Upon immune challenge, the IFMs produce anti-microbial peptides (AMPs) through the activation of canonical signaling pathways, and these IFM-synthesized AMPs are essential for survival upon infection. The trunk muscles of zebrafish, a vertebrate model system, also possess the capacity to mount an immune response against bacterial infections, thus establishing that immune responsiveness of muscles is evolutionarily conserved. Our results suggest that physiologically fit muscles might boost the innate immune response of an individual.
Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
Arunita
A
Chatterjee
Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
Debasish
D
Roy
Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
Esha
E
Patnaik
Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India upendra@mrdg.iisc.ernet.in upendra.nongthomba@gmail.com.
Upendra
0000-0002-0616-5995
U
Nongthomba
D000818:Animals; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000378:metabolism; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000276:immunology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D005426:Flight, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D009132:Muscles / Q000473:pathology*; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D016019:Survival Analysis; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors / Q000378:metabolism; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology*
D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D016328:NF-kappa B; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors
Anti-microbial peptides; Drosophila; Immunity; Infection; Muscle; Zebrafish