Negative Regulation and Gain Control of Sensory Neurons by the C. elegans Calcineurin TAX-6

نویسندگان

  • Atsushi Kuhara
  • Hitoshi Inada
  • Isao Katsura
  • Ikue Mori
چکیده

Animals sense and adapt to variable environments by regulating appropriate sensory signal transduction pathways. Here, we show that calcineurin plays a key role in regulating the gain of sensory neuron responsiveness across multiple modalities. C. elegans animals bearing a loss-of-function mutation in TAX-6, a calcineurin A subunit, exhibit pleiotropic abnormalities, including many aberrant sensory behaviors. The tax-6 mutant defect in thermosensation is consistent with hyperactivation of the AFD thermosensory neurons. Conversely, constitutive activation of TAX-6 causes a behavioral phenotype consistent with inactivation of AFD neurons. In olfactory neurons, the impaired olfactory response of tax-6 mutants to an AWC-sensed odorant is caused by hyperadaptation, which is suppressible by a mutation causing defective olfactory adaptation. Taken together, our results suggest that stimulus-evoked calcium entry activates calcineurin, which in turn negatively regulates multiple aspects of sensory signaling.

برای دانلود رایگان متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

RIC-3 phosphorylation enables dual regulation of excitation and inhibition of Caenorhabditis elegans muscle

Brain function depends on a delicate balance between excitation and inhibition. Similarly, Caenorhabditis elegans motor system function depends on a precise balance between excitation and inhibition, as C. elegans muscles receive both inhibitory, GABAergic and excitatory, cholinergic inputs from motor neurons. Here we show that phosphorylation of the ER-resident chaperone of nicotinic acetylcho...

متن کامل

Mutations in a Cyclic Nucleotide–Gated Channel Lead to Abnormal Thermosensation and Chemosensation in C. elegans

The C. elegans tax-4 mutants are abnormal in multiple sensory behaviors: they fail to respond to temperature or to water-soluble or volatile chemical attractants. We show that the predicted tax-4 gene product is highly homologous to vertebrate cyclic nucleotide-gated channels. Tax-4 protein expressed in cultured cells functions as a cyclic nucleotide-gated channel. The green fluorescent protein...

متن کامل

Acute carbon dioxide avoidance in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Carbon dioxide is produced as a by-product of cellular respiration by all aerobic organisms and thus serves for many animals as an important indicator of food, mates, and predators. However, whether free-living terrestrial nematodes such as Caenorhabditis elegans respond to CO2 was unclear. We have demonstrated that adult C. elegans display an acute avoidance response upon exposure to CO2 that ...

متن کامل

Regulation of calcineurin, a calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase, in C. elegans.

Calcineurin is a calcium/calmodulin-dependent serine/ threonine protein phosphatase. It is a heterodimeric protein consisting of a catalytic subunit calcineurin A, and a regulatory calcium-binding subunit, calcineurin B. The primary sequence of both subunits and heterodimeric structure is highly conserved from yeast to mammals. Calcineurin has long been implicated in various signaling pathways....

متن کامل

Diverse regulation of sensory signaling by C. elegans nPKC-epsilon/eta TTX-4.

Molecular and pharmacological studies in vitro suggest that protein kinase C (PKC) family members play important roles in intracellular signal transduction. Nevertheless, the in vivo roles of PKC are poorly understood. We show here that nPKC-epsilon/eta TTX-4 in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is required for the regulation of signal transduction in various sensory neurons for temperature, ...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • Neuron

دوره 33  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2002