TY - JOUR TI - IL17 factors are early regulators in the gut epithelium during inflammatory response to Vibrio in the sea urchin larva AU - Buckley, Katherine M AU - Ho, Eric Chun Hei AU - Hibino, Taku AU - Schrankel, Catherine S AU - Schuh, Nicholas W AU - Wang, Guizhi AU - Rast, Jonathan P A2 - Gaffen, Sarah VL - 6 PY - 2017 DA - 2017/04/27 SP - e23481 C1 - eLife 2017;6:e23481 DO - 10.7554/eLife.23481 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.23481 AB - IL17 cytokines are central mediators of mammalian immunity. In vertebrates, these factors derive from diverse cellular sources. Sea urchins share a molecular heritage with chordates that includes the IL17 system. Here, we characterize the role of epithelial expression of IL17 in the larval gut-associated immune response. The purple sea urchin genome encodes 10 IL17 subfamilies (35 genes) and 2 IL17 receptors. Most of these subfamilies are conserved throughout echinoderms. Two IL17 subfamilies are sequentially strongly upregulated and attenuated in the gut epithelium in response to bacterial disturbance. IL17R1 signal perturbation results in reduced expression of several response genes including an IL17 subtype, indicating a potential feedback. A third IL17 subfamily is activated in adult immune cells indicating that expression in immune cells and epithelia is divided among families. The larva provides a tractable model to investigate the regulation and consequences of gut epithelial IL17 expression across the organism. KW - Strongylocentrotus purpuratus KW - gut immunity KW - echinoderm JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -