Activation of planarian TRPA1 by reactive oxygen species reveals a conserved mechanism for animal nociception.

ABSTRACT: All animals must detect noxious stimuli to initiate protective behavior, but the evolutionary origin of nociceptive systems is not well understood. Here we show that noxious heat and irritant chemicals elicit robust escape behaviors in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea and that the conserved ion channel TRPA1 is required for these responses. TRPA1-mutant Drosophila flies are also defective in noxious-heat responses. We find that either planarian or human TRPA1 can restore noxious-heat avoidance to TRPA1-mutant Drosophila, although neither is directly activated by heat. Instead, our data suggest that TRPA1 activation is mediated by H₂O₂ and reactive oxygen species, early markers of tissue damage rapidly produced as a result of heat exposure. Together, our data revea

SUBMITTER: Arenas OM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5856474 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature