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Crosslinking of a Peritrophic Matrix Protein Protects Gut Epithelia from Bacterial Exotoxins

2015· article· en· 49 citations· W2107334741 on OpenAlex· 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005244

Why is this work in the frame?

A frame that forgets how it found something cannot be audited. These are the routes that admitted this work.

Canadian funderA Canadian agency funded it. The work may carry no Canadian affiliation at all.

No Canadian affiliation. An affiliation-only frame — the usual design — would never have seen this work. It is one of the works that make the case for inverting the frame.

The three-model screen

all 1,000 screened works →

All three models called this out of scope.

stratum: fund_new · design weight: 1678.90 (the sample is stratified; any rate computed without the weight is wrong)
Claude Opus 4.8OUT
genre: empirical
about Canada: no
confidence: high

Molecular biology of transglutaminase crosslinking in the Drosophila gut.

GPT-5.6 (high)OUT
genre: empirical
about Canada: no
confidence: high

The study investigates insect gut biology and bacterial toxins, not research itself.

Grok 4.5OUT
genre: empirical
about Canada: no
confidence: high

Drosophila gut barrier biology against bacterial toxins; domain immunology/microbiology.

Abstract

Transglutaminase (TG) catalyzes protein-protein crosslinking, which has important and diverse roles in vertebrates and invertebrates. Here we demonstrate that Drosophila TG crosslinks drosocrystallin, a peritrophic matrix protein, to form a stable fiber structure on the gut peritrophic matrix. RNA interference (RNAi) of the TG gene was highly lethal in flies and induced apoptosis of gut epithelial cells after oral infection with Pseudomonas entomophila. Moreover, AprA, a metalloprotease secreted by P. entomophila, digested non-crosslinked drosocrystallin fibers, but not drosocrystallin fibers crosslinked by TG. In vitro experiments using recombinant drosocrystallin and monalysin proteins demonstrated that monalysin, a pore-forming exotoxin of P. entomophila, was adsorbed on the crosslinked drosocrystallin fibers in the presence of P. entomophila culture supernatant. In addition, gut-specific TG-RNAi flies had a shorter lifespan than control flies after ingesting P. entomophila, whereas the lifespan after ingesting AprA-knockout P. entomophila was at control levels. We conclude that drosocrystallin fibers crosslinked by TG, but not non-crosslinked drosocrystallin fibers, form an important physical barrier against exotoxins of invading pathogenic microbes.

Stored with the screening record, where it is evidence for the labels above.

The record

Venue
PLoS Pathogens
Topic
Invertebrate Immune Response Mechanisms
Field
Immunology and Microbiology
Canadian institutions
Funders
Institute of GeneticsUehara Memorial Foundation
Keywords
BiologyMicrobiologyIn vitroRecombinant DNARNA interferenceCell biologyBiochemistryRNAGene
Has abstract in OpenAlex
yes