THE IMPACT OF PORCINE ZONA PELLUCIDA ON INNATE IMMUNE SIGNALING IN CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANSÂ
THE IMPACT OF PORCINE ZONA PELLUCIDA ON INNATE IMMUNE SIGNALING IN CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANSÂ
Alyssa Ferrero, Eckerd College, Biology Discipline
Ray Ball DVM, Lake Chatuge Animal Hospital
Denise Flaherty PhD, Eckerd College, Biology Discipline
Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) is an immunotherapy contraceptive vaccine that is administered into wild mammal species for population control purposes (Gupta et al., 2011). A trial performed in ZooTampa with yellow footed rock wallabies had an observable strong correlation with high infertility rates, and interestingly, to a low number of clinical cases of toxoplasmosis infection. To determine if PZP might have a role in stimulating innate immune responses in addition to adaptive immune responses, it was tested on the model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans, which has only an innate immune system. To observe changes in innate immune signaling, transgenic fluorescent reporter strains of this nematode species were used. Green Fluorescent Protein reporters for glutathione-S-transferase 4 (gst-4), heat shock protein 16.2 (hsp-16.2), and abnormal dauer formation 16 (daf-16) were fed OP50 E. coli, or infectious Serretia marcescens +/- PZP. After incubation in these conditions fluorescence micrographs were taken (Zeiss AxioImager M2), then analyzed using Image J. Longevity studies were performed on C. elegans transgenic hsp-16.2::GFP strain to produce a Kaplan-Meier survival curve. The results analyzed thus far show significant differences in the HSP-16.2::green fluorescence intensity in OP50 control with the S. marcescens PZP (p=0.010) conditions, suggesting that heat shock protein 16.2 responds with higher expression to infection by S. marcescens when in presence of PZP comparatively with OP50 E. coli alone. While the addition of PZP to S. marcescens infection and OP50 E. coli was not statistically different from the control conditions, there is an increase in expression that requires further testing.
For more information: ahferrero@eckerd.edu