Dr. Rachel McMullen, Department of Life, Health and Chemical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes
Tuesday 24th November, 1.00 p.m., Keynes Lecture Theatre 6
Animals and plants respond to the presence of pathogenic microbes in their environment by triggering host defence mechanisms. Many of these innate defence strategies are ancient and highly conserved with plants, invertebrates and vertebrates sharing surprisingly similar responses including upregulation of antimicrobial peptides and activation of phagocytosis. As a consequence of this, invertebrate model systems, including Caenorhabditis elegans, have provided important insights into the molecular mechanisms that underlie infection responses. We have shown that C. elegans uses Gαq signaling pathways to regulate behavioural and cellular responses to infection. Here I will describe our recent work to identify the G-protein coupled receptors acting upstream of Gαq. I will present data identifying a novel C. elegans GPCR that is activated by its endogenous ligand during infection in order to regulate host infection responses.