Caenorhabditis elegans exhibits positive gravitaxis.
Caenorhabditis elegans
Cilia
Dopamine
Gravitaxis
Gravity
Sensory function
Taxis behavior
Journal
BMC biology
ISSN: 1741-7007
Titre abrégé: BMC Biol
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101190720
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
14 09 2021
14 09 2021
Historique:
received:
22
02
2021
accepted:
04
08
2021
entrez:
14
9
2021
pubmed:
15
9
2021
medline:
1
2
2022
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Gravity plays an important role in most life forms on Earth. Yet, a complete molecular understanding of sensing and responding to gravity is lacking. While there are anatomical differences among animals, there is a remarkable conservation across phylogeny at the molecular level. Caenorhabditis elegans is suitable for gene discovery approaches that may help identify molecular mechanisms of gravity sensing. It is unknown whether C. elegans can sense the direction of gravity. In aqueous solutions, motile C. elegans nematodes align their swimming direction with the gravity vector direction while immobile worms do not. The worms orient downward regardless of whether they are suspended in a solution less dense (downward sedimentation) or denser (upward sedimentation) than themselves. Gravitaxis is minimally affected by the animals' gait but requires sensory cilia and dopamine neurotransmission, as well as motility; it does not require genes that function in the body touch response. Gravitaxis is not mediated by passive forces such as non-uniform mass distribution or hydrodynamic effects. Rather, it is mediated by active neural processes that involve sensory cilia and dopamine. C. elegans provides a genetically tractable system to study molecular and neural mechanisms of gravity sensing.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
Gravity plays an important role in most life forms on Earth. Yet, a complete molecular understanding of sensing and responding to gravity is lacking. While there are anatomical differences among animals, there is a remarkable conservation across phylogeny at the molecular level. Caenorhabditis elegans is suitable for gene discovery approaches that may help identify molecular mechanisms of gravity sensing. It is unknown whether C. elegans can sense the direction of gravity.
RESULTS
In aqueous solutions, motile C. elegans nematodes align their swimming direction with the gravity vector direction while immobile worms do not. The worms orient downward regardless of whether they are suspended in a solution less dense (downward sedimentation) or denser (upward sedimentation) than themselves. Gravitaxis is minimally affected by the animals' gait but requires sensory cilia and dopamine neurotransmission, as well as motility; it does not require genes that function in the body touch response.
CONCLUSIONS
Gravitaxis is not mediated by passive forces such as non-uniform mass distribution or hydrodynamic effects. Rather, it is mediated by active neural processes that involve sensory cilia and dopamine. C. elegans provides a genetically tractable system to study molecular and neural mechanisms of gravity sensing.
Identifiants
pubmed: 34517863
doi: 10.1186/s12915-021-01119-9
pii: 10.1186/s12915-021-01119-9
pmc: PMC8439010
doi:
Substances chimiques
Dopamine
VTD58H1Z2X
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
186Informations de copyright
© 2021. The Author(s).
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