drosocin and Bacterial-Infections

In this paper we report a recessive mutation, immune deficiency (imd), that impairs the inducibility of all genes encoding antibacterial peptides during the immune response of Drosophila. When challenged with bacteria, flies carrying this mutation show a lower survival rate than wild-type flies. We also report that, in contrast to the antibacterial peptides, the antifungal peptide drosomycin remains inducible in a homozygous imd mutant background. These results point to the existence of two different pathways leading to the expression of two types of target genes, encoding either the antibacterial peptides or the antifungal peptide drosomycin.

Topics: Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; Bacterial Infections; Base Sequence; Drosophila; Drosophila Proteins; Gene Expression Regulation; Genes, Insect; Genes, Recessive; Genes, Reporter; Glycopeptides; Insect Hormones; Insect Proteins; Male; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutation; Mycoses; Peptides; Protein Binding; Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; Survival Analysis