TY - JOUR TI - A novel role for lipid droplets in the organismal antibacterial response AU - Anand, Preetha AU - Cermelli, Silvia AU - Li, Zhihuan AU - Kassan, Adam AU - Bosch, Marta AU - Sigua, Robilyn AU - Huang, Lan AU - Ouellette, Andre J AU - Pol, Albert AU - Welte, Michael A AU - Gross, Steven P A2 - Kolter, Roberto VL - 1 PY - 2012 DA - 2012/11/13 SP - e00003 C1 - eLife 2012;1:e00003 DO - 10.7554/eLife.00003 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00003 AB - We previously discovered histones bound to cytosolic lipid droplets (LDs); here we show that this forms a cellular antibacterial defense system. Sequestered on droplets under normal conditions, in the presence of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or lipoteichoic acid (LTA), histones are released from the droplets and kill bacteria efficiently in vitro. Droplet-bound histones also function in vivo: when injected into Drosophila embryos lacking droplet-bound histones, bacteria grow rapidly. In contrast, bacteria injected into embryos with droplet-bound histones die. Embryos with droplet-bound histones displayed more than a fourfold survival advantage when challenged with four different bacterial species. Our data suggests that this intracellular antibacterial defense system may function in adult flies, and also potentially in mice. KW - innate immunity KW - histone KW - lipid droplet KW - anti-bacterial JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -