Caenorhabditis elegans must distinguish pathogens from nutritious food sources among the many bacteria to which it is exposed in its environment1. Here we show that a single exposure to purified small RNAs isolated from pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA14) is sufficient to induce pathogen avoidance in the treated worms and in four subsequent generations of progeny. The RNA interference (RNAi) and PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathways, the germline and the ASI neuron are all required for avoidance behaviour induced by bacterial small RNAs, and for the transgenerational inheritance of this behaviour. A single P. aeruginosa non-coding RNA, P11, is both necessary and sufficient to convey learned avoidance of PA14, and its C. elegans target, maco-1, is required for avoidance. Our results suggest that this non-coding-RNA-dependent mechanism evolved to survey the microbial environment of the worm, use this information to make appropriate behavioural decisions and pass this information on to its progeny.

中文翻译：

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C. elegans 解释细菌非编码 RNA 以学习避免致病

秀丽隐杆线虫必须在其环境中暴露的许多细菌中区分病原体和营养食物来源。在这里，我们表明单次暴露于从致病性铜绿假单胞菌 (PA14) 中分离的纯化小 RNA 足以在处理过的蠕虫和随后的四代后代中诱导病原体避免。RNA 干扰 (RNAi) 和 PIWI 相互作用 RNA (piRNA) 途径、种系和 ASI 神经元都是细菌小 RNA 诱导的回避行为以及这种行为的跨代遗传所必需的。单个铜绿假单胞菌非编码 RNA P11 是必要且足以传达学习避免 PA14 的，并且它的 C. elegans 目标 maco-1 是避免所必需的。