Previous and recent investigations on the innate immune response of Drosophila have identified certain mechanisms that promote pathogen elimination. However, the function of Thioester-containing proteins (TEPs) in the fly still remains elusive. Recently we have shown the contribution of TEP4 in the antibacterial immune defense of Drosophila against non-pathogenic E. coli, and the pathogens Photorhabdus luminescens and P. asymbiotica. Here we studied the function of Tep genes in both humoral and cellular immunity upon E. coli and Photorhabdus infection. We found that while Tep2 is induced after Photorhabdus and E. coli infection; Tep6 is induced by P. asymbiotica only. Moreover, functional ablation of hemocytes results in significantly low transcript levels of Tep2 and Tep6 in response to Photorhabdus. We show that Tep2 and Tep6 loss-of-function mutants have prolonged survival against P. asymbiotica, Tep6 mutants survive better the infection of P. luminescens, and both tep mutants are resistant to E. coli and Photorhabdus. We also find a distinct pattern of immune signaling pathway induction in E. coli or Photorhabdus infected Tep2 and Tep6 mutants. We further show that Tep2 and Tep6 participate in the activation of hemocytes in Drosophila responding to Photorhabdus. Finally, inactivation of Tep2 or Tep6 affects phagocytosis and melanization in flies infected with Photorhabdus. Our results indicate that distinct Tep genes might be involved in different yet crucial functions in the Drosophila antibacterial immune response.
Keywords: Drosophila; Photorhabdus; immunity; thioester-containing protein.