Basement Membrane and Cell Integrity of Self-Tissues in Maintaining Drosophila Immunological Tolerance

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004683
• Publication Date: 2014-10-20T17:26:53Z
• Authors: Moon Jong Kim; Kwang-Min Choe
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Autoimmunity; Cell Communication; QH426-470; Basement Membrane; 3. Good health; Animals, Genetically Modified; 03 medical and health sciences; Drosophila melanogaster; Larva; Genetics; Immune Tolerance; Animals; Drosophila Proteins; RNA Interference; Laminin; Research Article

The mechanism underlying immune system recognition of different types of pathogens has been extensively studied over the past few decades; however, the mechanism by which healthy self-tissue evades an attack by its own immune system is less well-understood. Here, we established an autoimmune model of melanotic mass formation in Drosophila by genetically disrupting the basement membrane. We found that the basement membrane endows otherwise susceptible target tissues with self-tolerance that prevents autoimmunity, and further demonstrated that laminin is a key component for both structural maintenance and the self-tolerance checkpoint function of the basement membrane. Moreover, we found that cell integrity, as determined by cell-cell interaction and apicobasal polarity, functions as a second discrete checkpoint. Target tissues became vulnerable to blood cell encapsulation and subsequent melanization only after loss of both the basement membrane and cell integrity.