TGF-β Signaling Pathway Is Required For Avoidance Behavior To Bacterial Infection In Caenorhabditis Elegans

Previous studies in Caenorhabditis elegans demonstrate that the TGF-β signaling pathway is involved in a variety of its physiological activities, including fat metabolism, feeding rate, regulation of longevity, and dauer formation, and so on. We studied the role of the TGF-β signaling pathway in avoidance behavior of C.elegans during bacterial infection. The results showed that the mutations of positive regulation gene in the TGF-β signaling pathway reduced the avoidance to pathogenic bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14. And the mutations of negative regulation gene in TGF-P signaling pathway increased the the avoidance efficiency of nematodes to PA14. TGF-P signaling pathway repressed the PLC signaling pathway to regulation the avoidance behavior of C.elegans. Pyocyanin, which is one of PA14metabolites also caused the avoidance behavior. The target genes of TGF-β signaling pathway also played a role in this process, sta-1played a positive role, whereas bra-1and scd-2signaling played a negative role in avoidance behavior. These results suggest that the TGF-β signaling pathway, which is activated in worms exposed to P. aeruginosa PA14,...