A novel molecular solution for ultraviolet light detection in Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: For many organisms the ability to transduce light into cellular signals is crucial for survival. Light stimulates DNA repair and metabolism changes in bacteria, avoidance responses in single-cell organisms, attraction responses in plants, and both visual and nonvisual perception in animals. Despite these widely differing responses, in all of nature there are only six known families of proteins that can transduce light. Although the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans has none of the known light transduction systems, we show here that C. elegans strongly accelerates its locomotion in response to blue or shorter wavelengths of light, with maximal responsiveness to ultraviolet light. Our data suggest that C. elegans uses this light response to escape the lethal doses of sunlight that permeate it

SUBMITTER: Edwards SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2494560 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature