Work

Coordination of behavioral hierarchies during environmental transitions inCaenorhabditis elegans

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: For animals inhabiting multiple environments, the ability to select appropriate behaviors is crucial as their adaptability is often context dependent. Caenorhabditis elegans uses distinct gaits to move on land and in water. Gait transitions can potentially coordinate behaviors associated with distinct environments. We investigated whether land and water differentially affect the behavioral repertoire of C. elegans. Swimming worms interrupted foraging, feeding, egg-laying and defecation. Exogenous dopamine induced bouts of these land-associated behaviors in water. Our finding that worms do not drink fluid while immersed may explain why higher drug doses are required in water than on land to elicit the same effects. C. elegans is a valid model to study behavioral hierarchies and how environmental pressures alter their balance.

Source: Worm

DOI: 10.4161/worm.19148

Authors: Andrés G. Vidal-Gadea, Scott Davis, Lindsay Becker, Jonathan T. Pierce-Shimomura

Institution: The University of Texas at Austin

Language: English

Topic: Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research

Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Center for Research Resources

Awards: Adaptive tissue permeability to alcohol in C. elegans, ANALYSIS OF MOTOR PATTERN SWITCHING BY DOPAMINE