Enteric bacterial infection in Drosophila induces whole-body alterations in metabolic gene expression independently of the Immune Deficiency (Imd) signalling pathway.

Abstract

When infected by intestinal pathogenic bacteria, animals initiate both local and systemic defence responses. These responses are required to reduce pathogen burden and also to alter host physiology and behaviour to promote infection tolerance, and they are often mediated through alterations in host gene expression. Here, we have used transcriptome profiling to examine gene expression changes induced by enteric infection with the gram-negative bacteria Pseudomonas entomophila (P.e) in adult female Drosophila. We find that infection induces a strong upregulation of metabolic gene expression, including gut and fat body-enriched genes involved in lipid transport, lipolysis, and beta-oxidation, as well as glucose and amino acid metabolism genes. Furthermore, we find that the classic innate immune deficiency (Imd)/Relish/NF-KappaB pathway is not required for, and in some cases limits, these infection-mediated increases in metabolic gene expression. We also see that enteric infection with P.e. down regulates the expression of many transcription factors and cell-cell signaling molecules, particularly those previously shown to be involved in gut-to-brain and neuronal signaling. Moreover, as with the metabolic genes, these changes occurred largely independent of the Imd pathway. Together, our study identifies many metabolic, signaling and transcription factor gene expression changes that may contribute to organismal physiological and behavioural responses to enteric pathogen infection.