COUSTAU , Christine

Les plantes disposent d'une immunité naturelle qui leur permet de résister aux maladies et aux agressions parasitaires dans leur environnement. L'invention puis le développement de l'agriculture ont cependant créé des milieux très favorables à l'émergence de nouvelles maladies et au développement des épidémies. Cette vulnérabilité sanitaire...

Pinaud et al. recently provided the first global investigation of the molecular processes underlying innate immune memory in an invertebrate species. They showed that the memory response of the snail Biomphalaria glabrata to Schistosoma mansoni infection is associated with a shift from cellular to humoral mechanisms.

LBPs (lipopolysaccharide binding proteins) and BPIs (bactericidal permeability increasing proteins) are important proteins involved in defense against bacterial pathogens. We recently discovered a novel biocidal activity of a LBP/BPI from the gastropod Biomphalaria glabrata and demonstrated its role in parental immune protection of eggs,...

Activité anti-oomycète des lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-binding proteins/bactericidal/permeability-increasing proteins

The nature and cost of single genes of major effect is one of the longest running controversies in biology. Resistance, whether to xenobiotics or to parasites, is often paraded as an obvious example of a single gene effect that must carry an associated fitness 'cost'. However, a review of the xenobiotic resistance literature shows that...

International audience

Background: The widespread use of genome sequencing provided evidences for the high degree of conservation in innate immunity signalling pathways across animal phyla. However, the functioning and evolutionary history of immune-related genes remains unknown for most invertebrate species. A striking observation coming from the analysis of the pea...

This review summarizes the research progress made over the past decade in the field of gastropod immunity resulting from investigations of the interaction between the snail Biomphalaria glabrata and its trematode parasites. A combination of integrated approaches, including cellular, genetic and comparative molecular and proteomic approaches...

RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which small RNA (sRNA) molecules sequence-specifically silence gene expression at the transcriptional or post-transcriptional level, either by directing inhibitory chromatin modifications or by decreasing the stability or translation potential of the targeted mRNA. The trigger for gene...

Abstract BACKGROUND The fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith), is an important pest of agronomical crops. It is interesting to discover secondary metabolites in plants that are environmentally safer than synthetic pesticides. For this purpose, Combretum trifoliatum crude extract and its isolated compounds were investigated for their...

The Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus, vector of various human viruses and parasites, has recently spread and established in many temperate regions including European countries. In the present study, we developed a simple PCR-based assay (the amplification of the internal transcribed spacer ITS2 within nuclear ribosomal rDNA) for molecular...