Dissecting a central flip-flop circuit that integrates contradictory sensory cues in C. elegans feeding regulation. Nat Commun. 2012 Apr 10;3:776.

Nature Communications, 2012 Apr 10;3:776. doi: 10.1038/ncomms1780.

Dissecting a central flip-flop circuit that integrates contradictory sensory cues in C. elegans feeding regulation.

Li Z, Li Y, Yi Y, Huang W, Yang S, Niu W, Zhang L, Xu Z, Qu A, Wu Z, Xu T.#

College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.

# National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.

Abstract

Feeding behaviour is modulated by both environmental cues and internal physiological states. Appetite is commonly boosted by the pleasant smell (or appearance) of food and destroyed by a bad taste. In reality, animals sense multiple environmental cues at the same time and it is not clear how these sensory inputs are integrated and a decision is made to regulate feeding behaviour accordingly. Here we show that feeding behaviour in Caenorhabditis elegans can be either facilitated by attractive odours or suppressed by repellents. By identifying mutants that are defective for sensory-mediated feeding regulation, we dissected a central flip-flop circuit that integrates two contradictory sensory inputs and generates bistable hormone output to regulate feeding behaviour. As feeding regulation is fundamental to animal survival, we speculate that the basic organizational logic identified here in C. elegans is likely convergent throughout different phyla.

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全文链接：http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n4/full/ncomms1780.html