Naitza, S., Rosse, C., Kappler, C., Georgel, P., Belvin, M., Gubb, D., Camonis, J., Hoffmann, J.A., Reichhart, J.M. (2002). The Drosophila immune defense against gram-negative infection requires the death protein dFADD.  Immunity 17(5): 575--581.

FBrf0152075

Research paper

Drosophila responds to Gram-negative infections by mounting an immune response that depends on components of the IMD pathway. We recently showed that imd encodes a protein with a death domain with high similarity to that of mammalian RIP. Using a two-hybrid screen in yeast, we have isolated the death protein dFADD as a molecule that associates with IMD. Our data show that loss of dFADD function renders flies highly susceptible to Gram-negative infections without affecting resistance to Gram-positive bacteria. By genetic analysis we show that dFADD acts downstream of IMD in the pathway that controls inducibility of the antibacterial peptide genes.