Pheromone-Mediated Signaling in C. Elegans

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All animals communicate with each other using chemical signals. These signals allow animals to assess their environment and to find food, potential mates, and escape from predators. Understanding how animals recognize and respond to these chemical cues is essential for a better understanding of animal development and behavior. We are studying animal-to-animal communication in a laboratory animal, the roundworm C. elegans. C. elegans emits a complex mixture of chemicals that acts as a crowding signal for other worms. The goal of this project is to explore how C. elegans detects and responds to this crowding signal. Specifically, the goal is to identify the nerve cells and the proteins present in them (receptors) that detect these chemicals, and to investigate how detection of this information alters the development and behavior of these animals. Understanding this critical process will provide key information on chemical communication among animals, as well as between animals and their environment. This project will provide the basis for a doctoral thesis and one to two undergraduate senior honors research theses. Graduate and undergraduate students will be trained in the experimental and theoretical basis of genetics, behavioral studies, genomics and molecular biology, and will be provided the opportunity to present their work at local and national forums. This work will also foster interactions between biologists, physicists and biological chemists.