The Caenorhabditis elegans innexin INX-20 regulates nociceptive behavioral sensitivity.

ABSTRACT: Organisms rely on chemical cues in their environment to indicate the presence or absence of food, reproductive partners, predators, or other harmful stimuli. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, the bilaterally symmetric pair of ASH sensory neurons serves as the primary nociceptors. ASH activation by aversive stimuli leads to backward locomotion and stimulus avoidance. We previously reported a role for guanylyl cyclases in dampening nociceptive sensitivity that requires an innexin-based gap junction network to pass cGMP between neurons. Here, we report that animals lacking function of the gap junction component INX-20 are hypersensitive in their behavioral response to both soluble and volatile chemical stimuli that signal through G protein-coupled receptor pathways in ASH. We find that

SUBMITTER: Chaubey AH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10319955 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature