Drosophila genes/microbial infection

This page provides a link to an Excel file that provides a list of i) Drosophila genes known to function in immunity, ii) Drosophila genes that share homology with genes involved in immune reactions in other organisms and iii) Drosophila genes reported to be induced upon septic injury by De Gregorio et al., (2001; 2002). Drosophila genes with potential relevance to the immune response were identified via WU-BLAST 2.0 searches with recognition, signaling, and effector protein sequences against the Drosophila Genome Project blast server that contains 13601 predicted protein-coding genes representing about 99.7% of the genome. Protein matches with significant probability were examined further, often by identifying the closest nonfly match to the Drosophila gene in a blast search of the NCBI nonredundant databases.

This list is largely restricted to genes with high probability protein matches. For each gene, links are provided with the FLYBASE database of the Drosophila genome. For further discussion of the roles and potential roles of these genes in immunity, see Lemaitre and Hoffmann (2007) Annual Review of Immunology.

The column 2 (“F”) indicates the criteria used to select this gene in this list :

(1), genetic study,

(2) in vivo RNAi study;

(3) Study with cell culture ;

(4) expression pattern (selected as DIRGs),

(5) homology with other immune genes.

The two last columns indicate the induction level for each gene after septic injury or natural infection by Beauveria bassiana, an entomopathogenic fungus. This data were obtained after a genome wide analysis using microarray. Note that the numbers are indicated only for the genes catalogued as DIRGs in the De Gregorio study. Therefore, only a fraction of inducible genes are indicated. For more information, see De Gregorio et al. (2001) Genome-wide analysis of the Drosophila immune response using oligonucleotide microarrays. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.

For a comparison between the microarray analysis and other classical approaches to monitor gene expression profiles during microbial infection in Drosophila, click here : http://www.cnrs-gif.fr/cgm/immunity/comp_microarray.html.

This list is a first attempt to catalogue Drosophila genes with potential roles in immunity and is not to be considered complete. Please notify us of any errors and omissions so that we can correct them; we will do our best to keep this page updated.