Abstract: Understanding how animals detect and respond to pathogen threats is central to dissecting mechanisms of host immunity. The oomycetes represent a diverse eukaryotic group infecting various hosts from nematodes to humans. We have previously shown that Caenorhabditis elegans mounts a defense response consisting of the induction of chitinase-like (chil) genes in the epidermis to combat infection by its natural oomycete pathogen Myzocytiopsis humicola. We provide here evidence that C. elegans can sense the oomycete by detecting an innocuous extract derived from animals infected with M. humicola. The oomycete recognition response (ORR) leads to changes in the cuticle and reduction in pathogen attachment, thereby increasing animal survival. We also show that TAX-2/TAX-4 function in chemosensory neurons is required for the induction of chil-27 in the epidermis in response to extract exposure. Our findings highlight that neuron-to-epidermis communication may shape responses to oomycete recognition in animal hosts. ; sponsorship: We thank Christina Vagena-Pantoula for technical help and Rachel McMullan for the pRJM163 plasmid. We thank Mark Hintze, Vladimir Lazetic, and Emily Troemel for comments on the manuscript and Mandayam Srinivasan for access to the AFM equipment. Some C. elegans strains were provided by the CGC, which is funded by NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (P40 OD010440). We acknowledge the support from the Wellcome Trust (219448/Z/19/Z). F.D. is the recipient of an Imperial College Schrodinger PhD Scholarship. (NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs|P40 OD010440, Wellcome Trust|219448/Z/19/Z, Imperial College Schrodinger PhD Scholarship, Wellcome Trust|219448/Z/19/Z) ; status: Published
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