Linked Life Data

11316496

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/11316496

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
Pt 10
pubmed:dateCreated
2001-4-24
pubmed:abstractText
While the basic functioning of the nervous system of Caenorhabditis elegans has been extensively studied, its behavioural plasticities have not been fully explored because of the limited availability of assay systems. We report here a simple form of chemotaxis plasticity in this organism: when worms are starved on plates that contain NaCl, their chemotaxis towards NaCl falls dramatically. This conditioning requires both the presence of NaCl and the absence of a bacterial food source, indicating that it is not merely adaptation or habituation, but that it is likely to be a form of associative learning. While chemotaxis towards volatile chemoattractants does not change significantly after conditioning with NaCl, chemotaxis towards other water-soluble attractants does decrease. This suggests that an altered response of a cell or a group of cells specifically involved in chemotaxis towards water-soluble chemoattractants is responsible for the behavioural alteration. The decrease in chemotaxis occurred slowly over 3-4 h of conditioning and returned quickly to the original level when either of the conditioning stimuli, NaCl or starvation, was removed. The application of serotonin partially blocked this reduction in chemotaxis, consistent with the proposed function of this neurotransmitter in food signalling. Using this assay, we have isolated three mutants with reduced plasticity. This assay system expands the opportunities for studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms of behavioural plasticity in C. elegans.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
May
pubmed:issn
0022-0949
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
204
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
1757-64
pubmed:dateRevised
2006-11-15
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2001
pubmed:articleTitle
Plasticity of chemotaxis revealed by paired presentation of a chemoattractant and starvation in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.
pubmed:affiliation
Molecular Genetics Research Laboratory and Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't