John Brooks (University of Texas Southwestern) Webinar

The microbiota coordinates diurnal rhythms in intestinal innate immunity with the host circadian clock
Date
Oct 28, 2020, 12:00 pm1:00 pm
Location
Thomas Laboratory
Audience
Free and open to the university community and the public.

Speakers

John Brooks
Hanna Gray Postdoc
University of Texas, Southwestern

Details

Event Description

Environmental light cycles entrain circadian feeding behaviors in animals that produce rhythms in exposure to foodborne bacteria. It remains unclear whether there are corresponding immunological rhythms that anticipate this microbial exposure. Here, we show that the intestinal microbiota generates diurnal rhythms in innate immunity that synchronize with host feeding rhythms. Rhythmic expression of select antimicrobial proteins was driven by daily rhythms in epithelial attachment by segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB), a member of the mouse intestinal microbiota. Rhythmic SFB attachment was driven by the circadian clock through control of host feeding rhythms. Mechanistically, rhythmic SFB attachment activated an immunological circuit involving type 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3). This circuit triggered oscillations in epithelial STAT3 expression that produced rhythmic antimicrobial protein expression and caused resistance to intestinal bacterial infection to vary across the day-night cycle. Thus, host feeding rhythms are synchronized with rhythms in intestinal innate immunity that anticipate exogenous microbial exposure. 

Sponsor
Zemer Gitai, Department of Molecular Biology
Event Category
Butler Seminar Series