<i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> processes sensory information to choose between freeloading and self-defense strategies.

Abstract

Hydrogen peroxide is the preeminent chemical weapon that organisms use for combat. Individual cells rely on conserved defenses to prevent and repair peroxide-induced damage, but whether similar defenses might be coordinated across cells in animals remains poorly understood. Here, we identify a neuronal circuit in the nematode <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> that processes information perceived by two sensory neurons to control the induction of hydrogen peroxide defenses in the organism. We found that catalases produced by <i>Escherichia coli</i>, the nematode's food source, can deplete hydrogen peroxide from the local environment and thereby protect the nematodes. In the presence of <i>E. coli</i>, the nematode's neurons signal via TGFβ-insulin/IGF1 relay to target tissues to repress expression of catalases and other hydrogen peroxide defenses. This adaptive strategy is the first example of a multicellular organism modulating its defenses when it expects to freeload from the protection provided by molecularly orthologous defenses from another species.