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SUMMARY:Deconstructing pathogen-symbiont interactions in the Drosophila mo
 del
DTSTART:20250707T140000
DTSTAMP:20260314T204329Z
UID:e8d37097b69a1f3b3342bf96f715f79b6a6f94be53d626b16cffa0aa
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Igor Iatsenko - Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology\, 
 Berlin\, Germany\nThe interactions between pathogens and resident microbes
  that colonize host tissues are an inevitable component of many infections
 \, with dramatic consequences for disease outcomes. Despite the clear impo
 rtance of understanding these interactions\, our knowledge still remains l
 imited. We utilize the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster\, taking advantag
 e of its extensive genetic toolkit\, evolutionarily conserved innate immun
 e defenses\, and manipulable microbiome as a model to decipher how host-mi
 crobe and microbe-microbe interactions influence infection outcomes. Recen
 tly\, we focused on the impact of infection on Drosophila microbiota and f
 ound that gut communities remain resilient to infection-induced immune res
 ponse. We discovered that intrinsic resistance to host antimicrobial pepti
 des (AMPs) is a key mechanism that mediates such resilience. By transposon
  screening in Lactiplantibacillus plantarum\, a major Drosophila commensal
 \, we identified several mutants sensitive to AMPs. These mutants were imp
 aired in cell wall-modifying enzymes\, resulting in increased negative cel
 l surface charge and higher affinity to cationic AMPs. AMP-sensitive mutan
 ts were cleared from the gut after infection in wild-type\, but not in AMP
 -deficient flies\, suggesting that resistance to host AMPs is essential fo
 r commensal resilience in an inflamed gut environment. Additionally\, we f
 ound that L. plantarum even benefits from infection-induced perturbations 
 by increasing in abundance. We identified infection-induced glycosaminogly
 can remodelling as one of the underlying mechanisms. Specifically\, infect
 ion leads to an increased synthesis of heparan sulfate\, which promotes L.
  plantarum adhesion and biofilm formation. This finding represents an intr
 iguing example of how certain commensals benefit from the infection-induce
 d metabolic remodelling\, in turn providing colonization resistance to the
  host.
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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