Genetic Control of Temperature Preference in the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

Animals modify behavioral outputs in response to environmental changes. C. elegans exhibits thermotaxis, where well-fed animals show attraction to their cultivation temperature on a thermal gradient without food. We show here that feeding-state-dependent modulation of thermotaxis is a powerful behav...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Genetics (Austin) 2005-03, Vol.169 (3), p.1437-1450
Main Authors: Mohri, Akiko, Kodama, Eiji, Kimura, Koutarou D, Koike, Mizuho, Mizuno, Takafumi, Mori, Ikue
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acclimatization - drug effects
Acclimatization - genetics
Animal Feed
Animals
Caenorhabditis elegans
Caenorhabditis elegans - drug effects
Caenorhabditis elegans - genetics
Caenorhabditis elegans - growth & development
Feeding Behavior
Investigations
Methyl Methanesulfonate - pharmacology
Movement - drug effects
Movement - physiology
Mutagens - pharmacology
Mutation
Nematoda
Serotonin - pharmacology
Temperature
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Animals modify behavioral outputs in response to environmental changes. C. elegans exhibits thermotaxis, where well-fed animals show attraction to their cultivation temperature on a thermal gradient without food. We show here that feeding-state-dependent modulation of thermotaxis is a powerful behavioral paradigm for elucidating the mechanism underlying neural plasticity, learning, and memory in higher animals. Starved experience alone could induce aversive response to cultivation temperature. Changing both cultivation temperature and feeding state simultaneously evoked transient attraction to or aversion to the previous cultivation temperature: recultivation of starved animals with food immediately induced attraction to the temperature associated with starvation, although the animals eventually exhibited thermotaxis to the new temperature associated with food. These results suggest that the change in feeding state quickly stimulates the switch between attraction and aversion for the temperature in memory and that the acquisition of new temperature memory establishes more slowly. We isolated aho (abnormal hunger orientation) mutants that are defective in starvation-induced cultivation-temperature avoidance. Some aho mutants responded normally to changes in feeding state with respect to locomotory activity, implying that the primary thermosensation followed by temperature memory formation remains normal and the modulatory aspect of thermotaxis is specifically impaired in these mutants.
ISSN:0016-6731
1943-2631
1943-2631
DOI:10.1534/genetics.104.036111