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Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Methods for Skin Wounding and Assays for Wound Responses in C. elegans
Published on: December 3, 2014
Negative regulation of Caenorhabditis elegans epidermal damage responses by death-associated protein kinase
1Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, Sinsheimer Laboratories, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
Abstract:
Wounding of epidermal layers triggers multiple coordinated responses to damage. We show here that the Caenorhabditis elegans ortholog of the tumor suppressor death-associated protein kinase, dapk-1, acts as a previously undescribed negative regulator of barrier repair and innate immune responses to wounding. Loss of DAPK-1 function results in constitutive formation of scar-like structures in the cuticle, and up-regulation of innate immune responses to damage. Overexpression of DAPK-1 represses innate immune responses to needle wounding. Up-regulation of innate immune responses in dapk-1 requires the TIR-1/p38 signal transduction pathway; loss of function in this pathway synergizes with dapk-1 to drastically reduce adult lifespan. Our results reveal a previously undescribed function for the DAPK tumor suppressor family in regulation of epithelial damage responses.
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