Population variation in NAIP functional copy number confers increased cell death upon Legionella pneumophila infection.

Authors: Boniotto M, Tailleux L, Lomma M, Gicquel B, Buchrieser C, Garcia S, Quintana-Murci L Abstract The NAIP gene encodes an intracellular innate immunity receptor that senses flagellin. The genomic region containing NAIP presents a complex genomic organization and includes various NAIP paralogs. Here, we assessed the degree of copy number variation of the complete NAIP gene (NAIPFull) in various human populations and studied the functional impact of such variation on host cell fate using Legionella pneumophila as an infection model. We determined that African populations have a NAIPFull duplication at a higher frequency than Europeans and Asians, with an increased transcription of the gene. In addition, we demonstrated that a higher amount of the NAIPFull protein dramatically i...

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