{"doi":"10.1101/2021.08.05.455128","title":"A TIR-1/SARM1 phase transition underlies p38 immune pathway activation in the <i>C. elegans</i> intestine","abstract":"ABSTRACT Intracellular signaling regulators can be concentrated into membrane-free, higher-ordered protein assemblies to initiate protective responses during stress — a process known as phase transition. Here, we show that a phase transition of the Caenorhabditis elegans Toll/interleukin-1 receptor domain protein (TIR-1), an NAD + glycohydrolase homologous to mammalian sterile alpha and TIR motif-containing 1 (SARM1), underlies p38 PMK-1 immune pathway activation in C. elegans intestinal epithelial cells. Through visualization of fluorescently labeled TIR-1/SARM1 protein, we demonstrate for the first time that physiologic stresses, both pathogen and non-pathogen, induce multimerization of TIR-1/SARM1 into visible puncta within intestinal epithelial cells. In vitro enzyme kinetic analyses revealed that, like mammalian SARM1, the NAD + glycohydrolase activity of C. elegans TIR-1 is dramatically potentiated by protein oligomerization and a phase transition. Accordingly, C. elegans with genetic mutations that specifically block either multimerization or the NAD + glycohydrolase activity of TIR-1/SARM1 fail to induce p38 PMK phosphorylation, are unable to increase immune effector expression, and are dramatically susceptible to bacterial infection. Finally, we demonstrate that the TIR-1/SARM1 phase transition is modified by dietary cholesterol, revealing a new adaptive response that allows a metazoan host to anticipate pathogen threats during micronutrient deprivation, a time of relative susceptibility to infection. When cholesterol is limited, TIR-1/SARM1 oligomerizes into puncta in intestinal epithelial cells and engages its NAD + glycohydrolase activity, which increases p38 PMK-1 phosphorylation, and primes immune effector induction in a manner that promotes pathogen clearance from the intestine during a subsequent infection. Thus, a phase transition of TIR-1/SARM1 as a prerequisite for its NAD + glycohydrolase activity is strongly conserved across millions of years of evolution and is essential for diverse physiological processes in multiple cell types.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2021,"id":221376,"datarank":0.10397207708399181,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"self_citation_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9583,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":688936,"name":"Janneke D. Icso","orcid":"0000-0002-2944-1956","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":821961,"name":"J. Elizabeth Salisbury","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":263229,"name":"Tomás Rodríguez","orcid":"0000-0002-8724-5427","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":109690,"name":"Paul R. Thompson","orcid":"0000-0002-1621-3372","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":306040,"name":"Read Pukkila-Worley","orcid":"0000-0001-5340-8294","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":306038,"name":"Nicholas Peterson","orcid":"0000-0003-4157-8119","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":92,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:53:55.215284Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}