The CRC 670 - Cell-autonomous Immunity

Brief desription

Effective recognition of pathogens and rapid execution of immune responses are essential for the survival of organisms. Cell-autonomous immune responses of animal and plant cells rely on pattern recognition receptors that can distinguish self from non-self structures and that are able to activate a molecular execution machinery that ultimately terminates most pathogen attacks.

In mammals, the innate immune system is an important line of the defence system against microbial pathogens such as gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, fungi and viruses. Innate immune cells such as neutrophils, macrophages and dendritic cells directly kill the pathogenic microorganism through phagocytosis or induce the production of cytokines, which aid elimination of the pathogens. The responses of the innate immune system are decisive in instructing the development of balanced, long-lasting pathogen-specific adaptive immune responses.

Of special note, non-immune cells must be, and actually are, also able to cope with invading microbial pathogens. Like professional phagocytes, non-immune cells recognize and eliminate intracellular pathogens enabling them to initially contain microbial infections. In the absence of professional immune cells this is paramount for plant cells in order to restrict the spread of infection and to maintain the integrity of an infected organism. Similarly, higher plants have an ability to acutely sense microbial pathogens attacking aerial or root tissues and the plant has evolved a multilayered innate immune system to resist infection by the majority of pathogenic microorganisms.

The Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 670 aims to tackle core research topics in innate immunity of animal and plant cells. Special emphasis is devoted to cell-type-specific and autonomous defense reactions in immune and non-immune cells, which adds an additional layer of complexity to our understanding of innate immunity.

The key objectives of the CRC 670 are:

1. To understand the cell-type- and pathogen-specific activation requirements for autophagy and its functional impact during phagocytosis and host cell defense.
2. To characterize the ligand specificities of cytosolic DNA and RNA receptors (RLRs) and their signal transduction pathways.
3. To unravel the downstream signalling pathways of NLRs in plant cells.
4. To characterize the role of cellular stress responses and NADPH oxidase-mediated reactive oxygen species production for DAMP signaling pathways.
5. To define the molecular mechanisms underlying the co-operation of TLRs, NLRs, RLRs, and DAMPs in plant and animal cells with special emphasis on the activation of inflammasomes.
6. To characterize miRNA function in cell-autonomous immunity.