Reference - Detail
| RRC ID | 84033 |
|---|---|
| Author | Staum M, Abraham AC, Arbid R, Birari VS, Dominitz M, Rabinowitch I. |
| Title | Behavioral adjustment of C. elegans to mechanosensory loss requires intact mechanosensory neurons. |
| Journal | PLoS Biol |
| Abstract |
Sensory neurons specialize in detecting and signaling the presence of diverse environmental stimuli. Neuronal injury or disease may undermine such signaling, diminishing the availability of crucial information. Can animals distinguish between a stimulus not being present and the inability to sense that stimulus in the first place? To address this question, we studied Caenorhabditis elegans nematode worms that lack gentle body touch sensation due to genetic mechanoreceptor dysfunction. We previously showed that worms can compensate for the loss of touch by enhancing their sense of smell, via an FLP-20 neuropeptide pathway. Here, we find that touch-deficient worms exhibit, in addition to sensory compensation, also cautious-like behavior, as if preemptively avoiding potential undetectable hazards. Intriguingly, these behavioral adjustments are abolished when the touch neurons are removed, suggesting that touch neurons are required for signaling the unavailability of touch information, in addition to their conventional role of signaling touch stimulation. Furthermore, we found that the ASE taste neurons, which similarly to the touch neurons, express the FLP-20 neuropeptide, exhibit altered FLP-20 expression levels in a touch-dependent manner, thus cooperating with the touch circuit. These results imply a novel form of neuronal signaling that enables C. elegans to distinguish between lack of touch stimulation and loss of touch sensation, producing adaptive behavioral adjustments that could overcome the inability to detect potential threats. |
| Volume | 22(7) |
| Pages | e3002729 |
| Published | 2024-7-1 |
| DOI | 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002729 |
| PII | PBIOLOGY-D-23-03109 |
| PMID | 39024405 |
| PMC | PMC11288434 |
| MeSH | Animals Behavior, Animal* / physiology Caenorhabditis elegans* / physiology Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins* / genetics Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins* / metabolism Mechanoreceptors* / metabolism Mechanoreceptors* / physiology Mechanotransduction, Cellular / physiology Neuropeptides / genetics Neuropeptides / metabolism Sensory Receptor Cells / metabolism Sensory Receptor Cells / physiology Smell / physiology Touch* / physiology |
| Altmetric score |
オルトメトリクス指標項目
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| The most frequently cited source | Bluesky |
| Total number of mentions | 1 |
| Altmetric score changes over past 6months | 0.0 |
| Resource | |
| C.elegans | tm2990 tm2984 tm29902 tm29843 |