MAP3K9 and bacterial infectious disease: We then explored whether the increased susceptibility to bacterial infection following tax-6 knockdown was mediated by any known C. elegans innate immunity pathways, including the MAP kinase pathway mediated by NSY-1/SEK-1/PMK-1 (Kim et al., 2002), the MLK-1/MEK-1/KGB-1 c-Jun kinase pathway (Kim et al., 2004), the TGF-β/DBL-1 pathway (Mallo et al., 2002), and the bZIP transcription factor ZIP-2 pathway (Estes et al., 2010).