Low-dose radiation induces drosophila innate immunity through toll pathway activation

Numerous studies report that exposing certain organisms to low-dose radiation induces beneficial effects on lifespan,tumorigenesis,and immunity. by analyzing survival after bacterial infection and antimicrobial peptide gene expression in irradiated flies,we demonstrate that low-dose irradiation of drosophila enhances innate immunity. low-dose irradiation of flies significantly increased resistance against grampositive and gram-negative bacterial infections,as well as expression of several antimicrobial peptide genes. additionally,low-dose irradiation also resulted in a specific increase in expression of key proteins of the toll signaling pathway and phosphorylated forms of p38 and jnk. these results indicate that innate immunity is activated after low-dose irradiation through toll signaling pathway in drosophila.