Social signals that regulate C. elegans development

项目总结 生物体发育是一个高度受监管的过程；它的失调可能导致疾病。然而，它也是 灵活，使其对环境做出反应。环境的一个方面是社会互动 在有机体中。鉴于人们普遍认为这些是重要的，他们的具体方式 对生物体的影响基本上仍是未知的。然而，最近的估计表明，社会经济的影响 相互作用在大小上可以与基因的影响相媲美。这就需要发展 研究这一问题的易处理的模型系统。我们通过研究以下因素的影响来应对这一挑战 一种成熟的模式生物--秀丽线虫的发育的社会信号。我们发现这些信号 由雄性产生的物质强烈地影响两性人的发育和生殖生理，这是 实际上是女性。具体地说，感觉到雄性的存在会改变两性生殖系的发育， 确保更高质量的配子生产，直到老年。我们的实验发现，这些过程 由高度保守的神经内分泌信号控制，包括胰岛素和5-羟色胺。拿走 利用我们的模型系统的特定优势和这些初步发现，我们将调查：(1) 生殖系和支持它的性腺发生的特定发育变化；(2)如何 神经元将社会信号的接收传递到性腺，在那里它们影响生殖系的发育； 以及(3)神经元的行为和性别认同在对社会信号做出适当反应方面的作用。 重要的是，尽管我们研究线虫的这些问题，但惊人的相似现象 到目前为止在所有研究的动物中都有记录，包括哺乳动物。此外，神经内分泌控制的缺陷 细胞的繁殖和性别认同与许多人类疾病有关。这 提出了一种可能性，即社会信号可能在它们的病理中发挥作用。更好的机械性理解 对这些过程的了解将有助于更好地理解这些疾病状态的潜在生物学。 因为到目前为止我们发现的所有分子成分在所有动物中都高度保守，我们希望我们的 这项工作将为进一步研究社会信号在调节发展和 生理学。因此，它可能被证明有助于更好地了解并最终治疗相关疾病。 人类的状态。

PROJECT SUMMARY Organismal development is a highly regulated process; its dysregulation can lead to disease. Yet, it is also flexible to make it responsive to the environment. One aspect of the environment is the social interactions among organisms. Whereas it is generally understood that these are important, the specific ways in which they affect organisms remain substantially unknown. Recent estimates, however, suggest that the impact of social interactions could be comparable in magnitude to the effect of genes. This necessitates the development of tractable model systems in which to study this problem. We addressed this challenge by studying the effects of social signals on development of a well-established model organism, C. elegans. We found that signals produced by males powerfully affect development and reproductive physiology of hermaphrodites, which are effectively female. Specifically, sensing the male presence alters hermaphrodite germline development, ensuring higher quality of gamete production until older age. Our experiments uncovered that these processes are controlled by highly conserved neuroendocrine signals that include insulins and serotonin. Taking advantage of the specific strengths of our model system and these preliminary findings we will investigate: (1) The specific developmental changes that take place in the germline and the gonad that supports it; (2) How neurons communicate the receipt of social signals to the gonad, where they affect the germline development; and (3) The role of behavior and sexual identity of neurons in responding to social signals appropriately. Importantly, although we study these problems in C. elegans, strikingly similar phenomena have been documented in all animals studied so far, including mammals. Moreover, defects neuroendocrine control of reproduction and sexual identity of cells have been implicated in numerous human disease conditions. This raises a possibility that social signals might play a role in their pathology. A better mechanistic understanding of these processes would lead to a better understanding of the underlying biology of these disease states. Because all molecular components we identified so far are highly conserved among all animals, we expect our work will offer insights for further research on the role of social signals in regulation of development and physiology. It may thus prove useful for a better understanding and, ultimately, treatment of relevant disease states in humans.