Lima Aklima K, Dhillon Harpal, Dillman Adler R
Department of Nematology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92507, USA.
Pathogens. 2022 Sep 24;11(10):1094. doi: 10.3390/pathogens11101094.
A key component to understanding host-parasite interactions is the molecular crosstalk between host and parasite. Excreted/secreted products (ESPs) released by parasitic nematodes play an important role in parasitism. They can directly damage host tissue and modulate host defense. Steinernema carpocapsae, a well-studied parasite of insects releases approximately 500 venom proteins as part of the infection process. Though the identity of these proteins is known, few have been studied in detail. One protein family present in the ESPs released by these nematodes is the ShK family. We studied the most abundant ShK-domain-containing protein in ESPs, Sc-ShK-1, to investigate its effects in a fruit fly model. We found that Sc-ShK-1 is toxic under high stress conditions and negatively affects the health of fruit flies. We have shown that Sc-ShK-1 contributes to host immunomodulation in bacterial co-infections resulting in increased mortality and microbial growth. This study provides an insight on ShK-domain-containing proteins from nematodes and suggests these proteins may play an important role in host-parasite interactions.
理解宿主与寄生虫相互作用的一个关键要素是宿主与寄生虫之间的分子串扰。寄生线虫释放的排泄/分泌产物（ESPs）在寄生过程中发挥着重要作用。它们可直接损害宿主组织并调节宿主防御。昆虫的一种经过充分研究的寄生虫——斯氏线虫在感染过程中会释放约500种毒液蛋白。尽管这些蛋白的身份已为人所知，但很少有蛋白得到详细研究。这些线虫释放的ESPs中存在的一个蛋白家族是ShK家族。我们研究了ESPs中含量最丰富的含ShK结构域的蛋白Sc-ShK-1，以在果蝇模型中研究其作用。我们发现Sc-ShK-1在高应激条件下具有毒性，并对果蝇的健康产生负面影响。我们已经表明，Sc-ShK-1在细菌共感染中有助于宿主免疫调节，导致死亡率增加和微生物生长。这项研究为来自线虫的含ShK结构域的蛋白提供了见解，并表明这些蛋白可能在宿主与寄生虫的相互作用中发挥重要作用。
