Behavioral adjustment of C. elegans to mechanosensory loss requires intact mechanosensory neurons.
PLoS Biol
; 22(7): e3002729, 2024 Jul.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39024405
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.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Touch
/
Behavior, Animal
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Caenorhabditis elegans
/
Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins
/
Mechanoreceptors
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
PLoS Biol
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Israel
Country of publication:
Estados Unidos