Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
Nat Rev Immunol. 2010 Jan;10(1):47-58. doi: 10.1038/nri2689.
The genetically tractable model organism Caenorhabditis elegans was first used to model bacterial virulence in vivo a decade ago. Since then, great strides have been made in identifying the host response pathways that are involved in its defence against infection. Strikingly, C. elegans seems to detect, and respond to, infection without the involvement of its homologue of Toll-like receptors, in contrast to the well-established role for these proteins in innate immunity in mammals. What, therefore, do we know about host defence mechanisms in C. elegans and what can they tell us about innate immunity in higher organisms?
十年前，遗传上可操作的模式生物秀丽隐杆线虫首次被用于体内模拟细菌毒力。此后，在鉴定参与其抗感染防御的宿主反应途径方面取得了重大进展。引人注目的是，秀丽隐杆线虫似乎在没有其 Toll 样受体同源物参与的情况下检测到并对感染作出反应，与这些蛋白质在哺乳动物先天免疫中的既定作用形成对比。那么，我们对秀丽隐杆线虫的宿主防御机制了解多少，它们又能告诉我们高等生物的先天免疫情况？
