A quiescent state following mild sensory arousal in Caenorhabditis elegans is potentiated by stress.

ABSTRACT: An animal's behavioral and physiological response to stressors includes changes to its responses to stimuli. How such changes occur is not well understood. Here we describe a Caenorhabditis elegans quiescent behavior, post-response quiescence (PRQ), which is modulated by the C. elegans response to cellular stressors. Following an aversive mechanical or blue light stimulus, worms respond first by briefly moving, and then become more quiescent for a period lasting tens of seconds. PRQ occurs at low frequency in unstressed animals, but is more frequent in animals that have experienced cellular stress due to ultraviolet light exposure as well as in animals following overexpression of epidermal growth factor (EGF). PRQ requires the function of the carboxypeptidase EGL-21 and the calcium-activat

SUBMITTER: McClanahan PD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7057961 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature