Figure 3. A pathogen-specific transcriptional response is mounted by both C. elegans and P. pacificus upon exposure to different bacteria.

Overlap between the different genes differentially regulated in response to the four pathogens tested is represented as a Venn diagram for C. elegans and P. pacificus. Only 102 genes are found to be common between the expression profiles on all four pathogens in (A) C. elegans, while only 18 genes are common between the expression profiles corresponding to the four pathogens in (B) P. pacificus. This minimal overlap indicates the existence of a highly pathogen-specific immune response in both the nematodes. The abbreviations Bthu, Saur, Smar and Xnem refer to the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis, Staphylococcus aureus, Serratia marcescens and Xenorhabdus nematophila respectively.