C. elegans reads bacterial non-coding RNAs to learn pathogenic avoidance

C. elegans is exposed to many different bacteria in its environment, and must distinguish pathogenic from nutritious bacterial food sources. Here, we show that a single exposure to purified small RNAs isolated from pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA14) is sufficient to induce pathogen avoidance,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inbioRxiv
Main Authors Kaletsky, Rachel, Moore, Rebecca S, Vrla, Geoffrey D, Parsons, Lance L, Gitai, Zemer, Murphy, Coleen T
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Cold Spring Harbor Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 27.01.2020
Subjects
Avoidance behavior
Bacteria
Food sources
Heredity
Microbiomes
Non-coding RNA
Offspring
RNA-mediated interference
Worms
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:C. elegans is exposed to many different bacteria in its environment, and must distinguish pathogenic from nutritious bacterial food sources. Here, we show that a single exposure to purified small RNAs isolated from pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA14) is sufficient to induce pathogen avoidance, both in the treated animals and in four subsequent generations of progeny. The RNA interference and piRNA pathways, the germline, and the ASI neuron are required for bacterial small RNA-induced avoidance behavior and transgenerational inheritance. A single non-coding RNA, P11, is both necessary and sufficient to convey learned avoidance of PA14, and its C. elegans target, maco-1, is required for avoidance. A natural microbiome Pseudomonas isolate, GRb0427, can induce avoidance via its small RNAs, and the wild C. elegans strain JU1580 responds similarly to bacterial sRNA. Our results suggest that this ncRNA-dependent mechanism evolved to survey the microbial environment, use this information to make appropriate behavioral decisions, and pass this information on to its progeny.
DOI:10.1101/2020.01.26.920322