Insect physiology and innate immunity

We are interested in the innate immune system, its activation, development and interaction with other aspects of physiology. To understand innate immunity at the organismic level, we use insect models, in particular the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster.

Presently our research focuses on three major projects:
• The coagulation of insect hemolymph
• The insect response against entomopathogenic nematodes.
• The immune response against early stages of tumor development 

 

Fig1: left: a hemolymph sample turns viscous after bleeding. In the hemolymph clot, fibers can be stained with lectins (middle part) in which bacteria are captured (right part, the bacteria are labeled with green fluorescent protein).

 

Keywords

insect immunity, hemocytes, nematodes, tumor immunity, coagulation 

Selected publications

Arefin, B., Kucerova, L., Dobes, P., Markus, R., Strnad, H., Wang, Z., Hyrsl, P., Zurovec, M., & Theopold, U. (2013). Genome-wide transcriptional analysis of Drosophila larvae infected by entomopathogenic nematodes shows involvement of complement-, recognition-, and extracellular matrix proteins. J Inn. Immunity. (accepted for publication)

Theopold, U., Krautz, R., & Dushay, M.S. (2013). The Drosophila clotting system and its messages for mammals. Dev.Comp.Immunol. (epub ahead of print)

Hyrsl, P., Dobes, P., Wang, Z., Hauling, T., Wilhelmsson, C., & Theopold, U. (2011). Clotting factors and eicosanoids protect against nematode infections. J Inn Immun. 3:65-70

Wang, Z., Wilhelmsson, C., Hyrsl, P., Loof, T.G., Dobes, P., Klupp, M., Loseva, O., Mörgelin, M., Iklé, J., Cripps, R.M., Herwald, H., & Theopold, U. (2010). Pathogen entrapment by transglutaminase — a conserved early innate immune mechanism. PLoS Pathogens. 6(2):e1000763

Theopold, U. (2009). A bad boy comes good. Nature. 461:486-87