PMID:21435556

Citation	Bretscher, AJ, Kodama-Namba, E, Busch, KE, Murphy, RJ, Soltesz, Z, Laurent, P and de Bono, M (2011) Temperature, oxygen, and salt-sensing neurons in C. elegans are carbon dioxide sensors that control avoidance behavior. Neuron 69:1099-113
Abstract	Homeostatic control of body fluid CO(2) is essential in animals but is poorly understood. C. elegans relies on diffusion for gas exchange and avoids environments with elevated CO(2). We show that C. elegans temperature, O(2), and salt-sensing neurons are also CO(2) sensors mediating CO(2) avoidance. AFD thermosensors respond to increasing CO(2) by a fall and then rise in Ca(2+) and show a Ca(2+) spike when CO(2) decreases. BAG O(2) sensors and ASE salt sensors are both activated by CO(2) and remain tonically active while high CO(2) persists. CO(2)-evoked Ca(2+) responses in AFD and BAG neurons require cGMP-gated ion channels. Atypical soluble guanylate cyclases mediating O(2) responses also contribute to BAG CO(2) responses. AFD and BAG neurons together stimulate turning when CO(2) rises and inhibit turning when CO(2) falls. Our results show that C. elegans senses CO(2) using functionally diverse sensory neurons acting homeostatically to minimize exposure to elevated CO(2).
Links	PubMed PMC3115024 Online version:10.1016/j.neuron.2011.02.023
Keywords	Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Caenorhabditis elegans; Calcium/metabolism; Carbon Dioxide; Homeostasis/physiology; Ion Channel Gating/physiology; Motor Activity/physiology; Oxygen; Sensory Receptor Cells/physiology; Sodium Chloride
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Annotations

Gene product	Qualifier	GO Term	Evidence Code	with/from	Aspect	Extension	Notes	Status
CAEEL:CNG		GO:0006935: chemotaxis	ECO:0000315:		P		Mutation to cGMP-gated channel unit tax-4 causes significant decrease in avoidance of CO2 behavior (Fig. 1C)	complete CACAO 7229
CAEEL:CNG	involved_in	GO:0006935: chemotaxis	ECO:0000315: mutant phenotype evidence used in manual assertion		P		Seeded From UniProt	complete

References

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