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- Title
Dopamine modulates the plasticity of mechanosensory responses in Caenorhabditis elegans.
- Authors
Sanyal, Suparna; Wintle, Richard F.; Kindt, Katie S.; Nuttley, William M.; Arvan, Rokhand; Fitzmaurice, Paul; Bigras, Eve; Merz, David C.; Hébert, Terence E.; van der Kooy, Derek; Schafer, William R.; Culotti, Joseph G.; Van Tol, Hubert H.M.
- Abstract
Dopamine-modulated behaviors, including information processing and reward, are subject to behavioral plasticity. Disruption of these behaviors is thought to support drug addictions and psychoses. The plasticity of dopaminemediated behaviors, for example, habituation and sensitization, are not well understood at the molecular level. We show that in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a D1like dopamine receptor gene (dop-1) modulates the plasticity of mechanosensory behaviors in which dopamine had not been implicated previously. A mutant of dop-1 displayed faster habituation to nonlocalized mechanical stimulation. This phenotype was rescued by the introduction of a wild-type copy of the gene. The dop-1 gene is expressed in mechanosensory neurons, particularly the ALM and PLM neurons. Selective expression of the dop-1 gene in mechanosensory neurons using the mec-7 promoter rescues the mechanosensory deficit in dop-1 mutant animals. The tyrosine hydroxylase-deficient C. elegans mutant (cat-2) also displays these specific behavioral deficits. These observations provide genetic evidence that dopamine signaling modulates behavioral plasticity in C. elegans.
- Subjects
DOPAMINE; CAENORHABDITIS elegans; CAENORHABDITIS; CATECHOLAMINES; NEUROTRANSMITTERS; BIOGENIC amines
- Publication
EMBO Journal, 2004, Vol 23, Issue 2, p473
- ISSN
0261-4189
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/sj.emboj.7600057