Remembering your enemies: mechanisms of within-generation and multigenerational immune priming in Caenorhabditis...

Pathogens are abundant and drive evolution of host immunity. Whilst immune memory is classically associated with adaptive immunity, studies in diverse species now show that priming of innate immune defences can also protect against secondary infection. Remarkably, priming may also be passed on to progeny to enhance pathogen resistance and promote survival in future generations. Phenotypic changes that occur independent of DNA sequence underlie both 'within-generation' priming and 'multigenerational' priming. However, the molecular mechanisms responsible for these phenomena are still poorly understood. Caenorhabditis elegans is a simple and genetically tractable model organism that has enabled key advances in immunity and environmental epigenetics. Using both natural and human pathogens, researchers have uncovered numerous examples of innate immune priming in this animal. Viral infection models have provided key evidence for a conserved antiviral RNA silencing mechanism that is inherited in progeny. Bacterial infection models have explored mechanisms of within-generation and multigenerational priming that span chromatin modification and transcriptional changes, small RNA pathways, maternal provisioning and pathogen avoidance strategies. Together, these studies are providing novel insight into the immune reactivity of the genome and have important consequences for our understanding of health and evolution. In this review, we present the current evidence for learned protection against pathogens in C. elegans, discuss the significance and limitations of these findings and highlight important avenues of future investigation.