Vasopressin/oxytocin-related signaling regulates gustatory associative learning in C. elegans.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 23112336.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/science.1226860.
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Abstract
Vasopressin- and oxytocin-related neuropeptides are key regulators of animal physiology, including water balance and reproduction. Although these neuropeptides also modulate social behavior and cognition in mammals, the mechanism for influencing behavioral plasticity and the evolutionary origin of these effects are not well understood. Here, we present a functional vasopressin- and oxytocin-like signaling system in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Through activation of its receptor NTR-1, a vasopressin/oxytocin-related neuropeptide, designated nematocin, facilitates the experience-driven modulation of salt chemotaxis, a type of gustatory associative learning in C. elegans. Our study suggests that vasopressin and oxytocin neuropeptides have ancient roles in modulating sensory processing in neural circuits that underlie behavioral plasticity.
Medical subject headings
- Amino Acid Sequence
- Animals
- Biological Evolution
- Caenorhabditis elegans
- Caenorhabditis elegans/genetics
- Caenorhabditis elegans/physiology
- Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins
- Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins/agonists
- Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins/chemistry
- Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins/genetics
- Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins/metabolism
- Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins/pharmacology
- Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins/physiology
- Learning
- Learning/drug effects
- Learning/physiology
- Male
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Neuropeptides
- Neuropeptides/chemistry
- Neuropeptides/genetics
- Neuropeptides/pharmacology
- Neuropeptides/physiology
- Oxytocin
- Oxytocin/chemistry
- Oxytocin/genetics
- Oxytocin/pharmacology
- Oxytocin/physiology
- Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled
- Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled/agonists
- Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled/genetics
- Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled/metabolism
- Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled/physiology
- Signal Transduction
- Taste
- Taste/drug effects
- Taste/physiology
- Vasopressins
- Vasopressins/chemistry
- Vasopressins/genetics
- Vasopressins/pharmacology
- Vasopressins/physiology