Mitochondrial genes affect the immune response against bacterial infection (Duck Pasteurellosis) through a cascade of mechanisms mediated by nuclear immune genes- a cross talk with nuclear and mitochondrial gene

Abstract

Mitochondria possess 37 genes of its own, helpful for carrying out various functions including oxidative phosphorylation. But the mitochondria is neither independent in terms of its structure, nor its function, it depend upon nuclear gene for its functionality and replication. Our lab has earlier reported the role of mitochondrial genome in controlling health and reproduction in animal model. Reports also indicate that mitochondria have role in immune response against bacterial infection. In our current study, we depict the role of two polypeptide coding mitochondrial gene as cytochrome B and cytochrome C in providing host immunity against bacterial disease (Duck Pasteurellosis). We further observe that the mechanism was governed by cascade of mechanisms mediated through nuclear genes NRLP3, IL18 and Sting. In the first phase of the study, we have characterized Cytochrome B and Cytochrome C genes from Bengal duck and quantified through the assesment of the expression profiling with respect to healthy and Pasteurella infected ducks following a natural challenge with Pasteurella multocida. In the next phase of our study, we have characterized the above nuclear genes in Bengal duck and attempted to correlate the expression with mitochondrial genes. We attempted to explore the mechanism of pathway how mitochondrial DNA triggers the nuclear immune response leading to destruction of bacterial pathogen. Molecular docking revealed how IL18 directly binds with the pathogen. This is the first report in animal model.