Neuronal basis and diverse mechanisms of pathogen avoidance in Caenorhabditis elegans

Ming Lei; Yanheng Tan; Haijun Tu; Weihong Tan

doi:10.3389/fimmu.2024.1353747

Neuronal basis and diverse mechanisms of pathogen avoidance in Caenorhabditis elegans

Front Immunol. 2024 May 1:15:1353747. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1353747. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Ming Lei^#^{1

2

3}, Yanheng Tan^#², Haijun Tu², Weihong Tan^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Academy of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine (AMT), Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Biology, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
³ The Key Laboratory of Zhejiang Province for Aptamers and Theranostics, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou Institute of Medicine (HIM), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Pathogen avoidance behaviour has been observed across animal taxa as a vital host-microbe interaction mechanism. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has evolved multiple diverse mechanisms for pathogen avoidance under natural selection pressure. We summarise the current knowledge of the stimuli that trigger pathogen avoidance, including alterations in aerotaxis, intestinal bloating, and metabolites. We then survey the neural circuits involved in pathogen avoidance, transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of pathogen avoidance, signalling crosstalk between pathogen avoidance and innate immunity, and C. elegans avoidance of non-Pseudomonas bacteria. In this review, we highlight the latest advances in understanding host-microbe interactions and the gut-brain axis.

Keywords: aerotaxis; innate immunity; metabolites; neural circuit; pathogen avoidance; reactive oxygen species.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Caenorhabditis elegans* / immunology
Caenorhabditis elegans* / microbiology
Epigenesis, Genetic
Host-Pathogen Interactions* / immunology
Immunity, Innate*
Neurons / immunology
Neurons / metabolism
Signal Transduction

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21991084), National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFA090580), and Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality (JCYJ20210324121000001).