bah-1 encodes a protein with a DUF23 domain, a domain found in insects, plants, bacteria and two vertebrates, the frog and the fish, Tetraodon, but absent from mammalian genomes; bah-1 normally functions to contribute to the integrity of the nematode cuticle; bah-1 is also required for the surface characteristics of the elegans cuticle that are required for the binding of bacterial biofilms; bah-1 expression is down-regulated in mutants of the TGF-beta pathway, like daf-7, daf-8 or daf-14, as such, these mutants do not form biofilms, suggesting that the TGF-beta pathway regulates bah-1 and possibly other genes required for biofilm binding; bah-1 is expressed in the seam cells which are part of the cuticle-synthesizing hypodermis.
Predicted to enable glycosyltransferase activity. Predicted to be located in membrane. Expressed in seam cell. Used to study bacterial infectious disease.
C. elegans is being used as a model system to identify and study the genes required for the formation of bacterial biofilms in the host; the inherent resistance of biofilms to antimicrobial agents like phagocytes, antibiotics etc, are the root cause of chronic bacterial infections; the bah genes in elegans, bah-1, bah-2 and bah-3 are required for infection of elegans by biofilm producing bacteria Yersinia pestis and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, which bind to the C. elegans surface, predominantly on the head.