Age-dependent changes in response property and morphology of a thermosensory neuron and thermotaxis behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: Age-dependent cognitive and behavioral deterioration may arise from defects in different components of the nervous system, including those of neurons, synapses, glial cells, or a combination of them. We find that AFD, the primary thermosensory neuron of Caenorhabditis elegans, in aged animals is characterized by loss of sensory ending integrity, including reduced actin-based microvilli abundance and aggregation of thermosensory guanylyl cyclases. At the functional level, AFD neurons in aged animals are hypersensitive to high temperatures and show sustained sensory-evoked calcium dynamics, resulting in a prolonged operating range. At the behavioral level, senescent animals display cryophilic behaviors that remain plastic to acute temperature changes. Excessive cyclase activity of the AFD-sp

SUBMITTER: Huang TT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7253067 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature