Neural and genetic mechanisms underlying behavior in C. elegans

项目摘要 我们研究的长期目标是了解感觉环境是如何调节动物行为的。 在接下来的五年里，我们建议研究两种感觉的神经和遗传基础。 方式：热感觉和化学感觉。热感觉和化学感觉是关键的 从细菌到人类的所有形式的生命的质量和生存。为了生存和茁壮成长，动物和 人类已经进化出温度感觉和化学感觉系统，以检测、响应和适应 温度和环境中的化学物质。热和化学感知上的缺陷导致 神经和新陈代谢紊乱。然而，我们对潜在机制的理解 热感觉和化学感觉还远未完成。例如，尽管过去两年的研究 几十年来，人们对动物如何感知热量有了越来越清晰的理解，这揭示了 在体温感应机制上的显著守恒，更少有人知道动物是如何 感受寒冷的温度。同样，在pH感觉的情况下，一种化学感觉，尽管是酸 感觉已经被广泛地表征，我们对动物是如何感觉到碱的知之甚少 环境。在这里，我们将研究神经和遗传机制背后的冷感和 线虫的碱性感觉，这是一种被广泛用于研究感官知觉的强大遗传有机体。至 为此，我们将使用多学科方法，结合行为、遗传、钙成像和 电生理分析。作为热敏和化学敏感机制，尤其是那些涉及 感觉通道/受体往往在进化上是保守的，我们的工作将为 哺乳动物这些感觉模式的潜在机制以及相关的神经和代谢 精神错乱。

Project Summary The long-term goal of our research is to understand how the sensory environment regulates animal behavior. In the next five years, we propose to investigate the neural and genetic basis of two types of sensory modalities: thermosensation and chemosensation. Thermosensation and chemosensation are critical for the quality and survival of all forms of life ranging from bacteria to humans. To survive and thrive, animals and humans have evolved thermosensory and chemosensory systems to detect, respond, and adapt to temperature and chemicals in the environment. Defects in thermal and chemical perception lead to neurological and metabolic disorders. Nevertheless, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying thermosensation and chemosensation is far from complete. For example, though research in the past two decades has led to an increasingly clear understanding of how animals sense heat, which reveals a remarkable conservation in the mechanisms of thermosensation, much less is known about how animals sense cold temperatures. Similarly, in the case of pH sensation, a type of chemosensation, though acid sensation has been extensively characterized, we know very little about how animals sense alkali in the environment. Here, we will investigate the neural and genetic mechanisms underlying cold sensation and alkaline sensation in C. elegans, a powerful genetic organism widely used for the study sensory perception. To do so, we will use a multidisciplinary approach combining behavioral, genetic, calcium imaging, and electrophysiological analyses. As thermosensory and chemosensory mechanisms particularly those involving sensory channels/receptors tend to be evolutionarily conserved, our work will provide novel insights into the mechanisms underlying these sensory modalities in mammals and related neurological and metabolic disorders.