C. elegans odour discrimination requires asymmetric diversity in olfactory neurons

Paul D. Wes and Cornelia I. Bargmann ()
Additional contact information
Paul D. Wes: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Programs in Developmental Biology, Neuroscience, and Genetics, The University of California
Cornelia I. Bargmann: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Programs in Developmental Biology, Neuroscience, and Genetics, The University of California

Nature, 2001, vol. 410, issue 6829, 698-701

Abstract: Abstract Caenorhabditis elegans senses at least five attractive odours with a single pair of olfactory neurons, AWC, but can distinguish among these odours in behavioural assays1. The two AWC neurons are structurally and functionally similar, but the G-protein-coupled receptor STR-2 is randomly expressed in either the left or the right AWC neuron, never in both2. Here we describe the isolation of a mutant, ky542, with specific defects in odour discrimination and odour chemotaxis. ky542 is an allele of nsy-1, a neuronal symmetry, or Nsy, mutant in which STR-2 is expressed in both AWC neurons2. Other Nsy mutants exhibit discrimination and olfactory defects like those of nsy-1 mutants. Laser ablation of the AWC neuron that does not express STR-2 (AWCOFF) recapitulates the behavioural phenotype of Nsy mutants, whereas laser ablation of the STR-2-expressing AWC neuron (AWCON) causes different chemotaxis defects. We propose that odour discrimination can be achieved by segregating the detection of different odours into distinct olfactory neurons or into unique combinations of olfactory neurons.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35070581 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:410:y:2001:i:6829:d:10.1038_35070581

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35070581

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().