| RRC ID |
84076
|
| Author |
Zhang MG, Seyedolmohadesin M, Mercado SH, Tauffenberger A, Park H, Finnen N, Schroeder FC, Venkatachalam V, Sternberg PW.
|
| Title |
Sensory integration of food and population density during the diapause exit decision involves insulin-like signaling in Caenorhabditis elegans.
|
| Journal |
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
|
| Abstract |
Decisions made over long time scales, such as life cycle decisions, require coordinated interplay between sensory perception and sustained gene expression. The Caenorhabditis elegans dauer (or diapause) exit developmental decision requires sensory integration of population density and food availability to induce an all-or-nothing organismal-wide response, but the mechanism by which this occurs remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate how the Amphid Single Cilium J (ASJ) chemosensory neurons, known to be critical for dauer exit, perform sensory integration at both the levels of gene expression and calcium activity. In response to favorable conditions, dauers rapidly produce and secrete the dauer exit-promoting insulin-like peptide INS-6. Expression of ins-6 in the ASJ neurons integrates population density and food level and can reflect decision commitment since dauers committed to exiting have higher ins-6 expression levels than those of noncommitted dauers. Calcium imaging in dauers reveals that the ASJ neurons are activated by food, and this activity is suppressed by pheromone, indicating that sensory integration also occurs at the level of calcium transients. We find that ins-6 expression in the ASJ neurons depends on neuronal activity in the ASJs, cGMP signaling, and the pheromone components ascr#8 and ascr#2. We propose a model in which decision commitment to exit the dauer state involves an autoregulatory feedback loop in the ASJ neurons that promotes high INS-6 production and secretion. These results collectively demonstrate how insulin-like peptide signaling helps animals compute long-term decisions by bridging sensory perception to decision execution.
|
| Volume |
121(40)
|
| Pages |
e2405391121
|
| Published |
2024-10-1
|
| DOI |
10.1073/pnas.2405391121
|
| PMID |
39316052
|
| PMC |
PMC11459166
|
| MeSH |
Animals
Caenorhabditis elegans* / metabolism
Caenorhabditis elegans* / physiology
Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / genetics
Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / metabolism
Calcium / metabolism
Chemoreceptor Cells / metabolism
Diapause / physiology
Insulin* / metabolism
Population Density
Signal Transduction*
|
| Resource |
| C.elegans |
tm1888
tm3618
tm1983
tm1946
tm2308
tm2560
tm2416 |
