Monounsaturated fatty acid depletion is a metabolic pattern of pathogenesis surveilled to activate p38 MAPK innate immunity

Oleate depletion in intestinal cells of Caenorhabditis elegans is a metabolic pattern of pathogenesis that activates p38 MAPK immunity via TIR-1/SARM1 and PMK-1.

• Why it matters: It is unclear whether hosts can detect pathogen-induced metabolic changes as a signal of active microbial infection.
• What they did: The study shows that acute loss of oleate during bacterial infection collapses lysosome-related organelles, triggering aggregation and activation of TIR-1/SARM1, while oleate deficiency also activates the JNK KGB-1 nutrient-sensing pathway to promote TIR-1/SARM1 expression on these organelles.
• The result: This establishes that specific fatty-acid metabolic shifts are surveilled to identify bacterial attack and that the KGB-1–linked adaptive response is required for survival during infection.

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