Transcriptome Analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans Lacking Heme Peroxidase SKPO-1 Reveals an Altered Response to Enterococcus faecalis

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is commonly used as a model organism in studies of development and the host immune response. The worm encodes twelve peroxidase-cyclooxygenase superfamily members. SKPO-1 was localized to the hypodermis of the animals where it also affected cuticle development. In this work, a better understanding of how loss of skpo-1 impacts both sensitivity to pathogen as well as cuticle development was sought by subjecting a deletion mutant of skpo-1 to transcriptome analysis using RNA sequencing following exposure to control (Escherichia coli) and pathogenic (E. faecalis) feeding conditions. Overall design: C.elegans transcriptome from two different bacterial backgrounds (E. coli and E. faecalis) and two different genetic backgrounds (N2 wild type, and skpo-1 mutant).