The Drosophila deubiquitinating enzyme dUSP36 acts in the hemocytes for tolerance to Listeria monocytogenes infections.

Listeria monocytogenes is a facultative intracellular pathogen which can infect Drosophila melanogaster. Upon infection, Drosophila mounts an immune response including antimicrobial peptide production and autophagy activation. A set of previously published results prompted us to study the role of the deubiquitinating enzyme dUSP36 in response to L. monocytogenes infections. We show in this report that flies with dUsp36-specific inactivation in hemocytes are susceptible to L. monocytogenes infections (as are flies with autophagy-deficient hemocytes) but are still able to control bacterial growth. Interestingly, flies with dUsp36-depleted hemocytes are not sensitized to infection by other pathogens. We conclude that dUsp36 plays a major role in hemocytes for tolerance to L. monocytogenes.