The cyclic dinucleotide 2’3’-cGAMP induces a broad anti-bacterial and anti-viral response in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis

In mammals, cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) bind and activate STING to initiate an anti-viral type I interferon response. CDNs and STING originated in bacteria and are present in most animals. By contrast, interferons are believed to have emerged in vertebrates; thus, the function of CDN signaling in invertebrates is unclear. Here, we use a CDN, 2’3’-cGAMP, to activate immune responses in a model cnidarian invertebrate, the starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. Using RNA-Seq, we found that 2’3’-cGAMP induces robust transcription of both anti-viral and anti-bacterial genes in N. vectensis. Many of the anti-viral genes induced by 2’3’-cGAMP are homologs of vertebrate interferon stimulated genes, implying that the interferon response predates the evolution of interferons. Knockdown experiments identified a role for NF-κB in specifically inducing anti-bacterial genes downstream of 2’3’-cGAMP. Some of these putative anti-bacterial genes were also found to be induced during Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. We characterized the protein product of one of the putative anti-bacterial genes, the N. vectensis homolog of Dae4, and found that it has conserved anti-bacterial activity. This work suggests that a broad anti-bacterial and anti-viral transcriptional response is an evolutionarily ancestral output of 2’3’-cGAMP signaling in animals.