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Natural Polymorphisms in C. elegans HECW-1 E3 Ligase Affect Pathogen Avoidance Behaviour

Heritable variation in behavioural traits generally has a complex genetic basis(1), and thus naturally occurring polymorphisms that influence behaviour have been defined in only rare instances(2,3). The isolation of wild strains of Caenorhabditis elegans has facilitated the study of natural genetic...

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Autores principales: Chang, Howard C., Paek, Jennifer, Kim, Dennis H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3245782/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22089131
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature10643
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author Chang, Howard C.
Paek, Jennifer
Kim, Dennis H.
author_facet Chang, Howard C.
Paek, Jennifer
Kim, Dennis H.
author_sort Chang, Howard C.
collection PubMed
description Heritable variation in behavioural traits generally has a complex genetic basis(1), and thus naturally occurring polymorphisms that influence behaviour have been defined in only rare instances(2,3). The isolation of wild strains of Caenorhabditis elegans has facilitated the study of natural genetic variation in this species(4) and provided insights into its diverse microbial ecology(5). C. elegans responds to bacterial infection with conserved innate immune responses(6-8) and, while lacking the immunological memory of vertebrate adaptive immunity, exhibits an aversive learning response to pathogenic bacteria(9). Here, we report the molecular characterization of naturally occurring coding polymorphisms in a C. elegans gene encoding a conserved HECT domain-containing E3 ubiquitin ligase, HECW-1. We show that two distinct polymorphisms in neighbouring residues of HECW-1 each affect C. elegans behavioural avoidance of a lawn of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Neuron-specific rescue and ablation experiments, and genetic interaction analysis suggest that HECW-1 functions in a pair of sensory neurons to inhibit P. aeruginosa lawn avoidance behaviour through inhibition of the neuropeptide receptor NPR-1(10), which we have previously shown promotes P. aeruginosa lawn avoidance behaviour(11). Our data establish a molecular basis for natural variation in a C. elegans behaviour that may undergo adaptive changes in response to microbial pathogens.
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spelling pubmed-32457822012-06-22 Natural Polymorphisms in C. elegans HECW-1 E3 Ligase Affect Pathogen Avoidance Behaviour Chang, Howard C. Paek, Jennifer Kim, Dennis H. Nature Article Heritable variation in behavioural traits generally has a complex genetic basis(1), and thus naturally occurring polymorphisms that influence behaviour have been defined in only rare instances(2,3). The isolation of wild strains of Caenorhabditis elegans has facilitated the study of natural genetic variation in this species(4) and provided insights into its diverse microbial ecology(5). C. elegans responds to bacterial infection with conserved innate immune responses(6-8) and, while lacking the immunological memory of vertebrate adaptive immunity, exhibits an aversive learning response to pathogenic bacteria(9). Here, we report the molecular characterization of naturally occurring coding polymorphisms in a C. elegans gene encoding a conserved HECT domain-containing E3 ubiquitin ligase, HECW-1. We show that two distinct polymorphisms in neighbouring residues of HECW-1 each affect C. elegans behavioural avoidance of a lawn of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Neuron-specific rescue and ablation experiments, and genetic interaction analysis suggest that HECW-1 functions in a pair of sensory neurons to inhibit P. aeruginosa lawn avoidance behaviour through inhibition of the neuropeptide receptor NPR-1(10), which we have previously shown promotes P. aeruginosa lawn avoidance behaviour(11). Our data establish a molecular basis for natural variation in a C. elegans behaviour that may undergo adaptive changes in response to microbial pathogens. 2011-11-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3245782/ /pubmed/22089131 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature10643 Text en Users may view, print, copy, download and text and data- mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use: http://www.nature.com/authors/editorial_policies/license.html#terms
spellingShingle Article
Chang, Howard C.
Paek, Jennifer
Kim, Dennis H.
Natural Polymorphisms in C. elegans HECW-1 E3 Ligase Affect Pathogen Avoidance Behaviour
title Natural Polymorphisms in C. elegans HECW-1 E3 Ligase Affect Pathogen Avoidance Behaviour
title_full Natural Polymorphisms in C. elegans HECW-1 E3 Ligase Affect Pathogen Avoidance Behaviour
title_fullStr Natural Polymorphisms in C. elegans HECW-1 E3 Ligase Affect Pathogen Avoidance Behaviour
title_full_unstemmed Natural Polymorphisms in C. elegans HECW-1 E3 Ligase Affect Pathogen Avoidance Behaviour
title_short Natural Polymorphisms in C. elegans HECW-1 E3 Ligase Affect Pathogen Avoidance Behaviour
title_sort natural polymorphisms in c. elegans hecw-1 e3 ligase affect pathogen avoidance behaviour
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3245782/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22089131
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature10643
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