regulators of awc-mediated olfactory plasticity in caenorhabditis elegans监管者awc-mediated嗅觉可塑性的线虫.pdfVIP

Regulators of AWC-Mediated Olfactory Plasticity in Caenorhabditis elegans 1 1.¤a 1.¤b 1,2 Damien M. O’Halloran , Svetlana Altshuler-Keylin , Jin I. Lee , Noelle D. L’Etoile * 1 Center for Neuroscience, University of California Davis, Davis, California, United States of America, 2 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences University of California Davis, Davis, California, United States of America Abstract While most sensory neurons will adapt to prolonged stimulation by down-regulating their responsiveness to the signal, it is not clear which events initiate long-lasting sensory adaptation. Likewise, we are just beginning to understand how the physiology of the adapted cell is altered. Caenorhabditis elegans is inherently attracted to specific odors that are sensed by the paired AWC olfactory sensory neurons. The attraction diminishes if the animal experiences these odors for a prolonged period of time in the absence of food. The AWC neuron responds acutely to odor-exposure by closing calcium channels. While odortaxis requires a Ga subunit protein, cGMP-gated channels, and guanylyl cyclases, adaptation to prolonged odor exposure requires nuclear entry of the cGMP-dependent protein kinase, EGL-4. We asked which candidate members of the olfactory signal transduction pathway promote nuclear entry of EGL-4 and which molecules might induce long-term adaptation downstream of EGL-4 nuclear entry. We found that initiation of long-term adaptation, as assessed by nuclear entry of EGL-4, is dependent on G-protein mediated signaling but is independent of fluxes in calcium level