Roles for class IIA phosphatidylinositol transfer protein in neurotransmission and behavioral plasticity at the sensory neuron synapses of Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: Growing evidence suggests that sensory neuron synapses not merely pass, but actively encode sensory information and convey it to the central nervous system. The chemosensory preferences of Caenorhabditis elegans, as manifested in the direction of chemotaxis, are reversibly regulated by prior experience at the level of sensory neurons; the attractive drive is promoted by diacylglycerol (DAG) signaling, whereas the counteracting repulsive drive requires PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3) signaling. Here we report that the two opposing drives require a class IIA phosphatidylinositol transfer protein (PITP), PITP-1, which localizes to the sensory neuron synapses. In pitp-1 mutants, attraction behavior to salt is reduced, whereas conditioned repulsion from salt is eliminated: the mutants inflexibly show weak at

SUBMITTER: Iwata R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3088618 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature