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Updated: May 17, 2026
Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Active ERK in the C. elegans Germline
Published on: November 29, 2016
The temporal pattern of stimulation determines the extent and duration of MAPK activation in a Caenorhabditis elegans
Taichiro Tomida1, Shigekazu Oda, Mutsuhiro Takekawa
11Division of Molecular Cell Signaling, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8639, Japan.
Abstract:
The Caenorhabditis elegans ASER sensory neuron is excited when environmental NaCl concentration is decreased. The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) MPK-1, a homolog of ERK (extracellular signal-regulated kinase), is activated during excitation of ASER sensory neurons. We created and expressed a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based MAPK activity probe in ASER neurons and then exposed the worms to various cyclic patterns of stimulation (changes in NaCl concentration) to monitor the dynamics of MPK-1 activity. We found that the intensity and duration of MPK-1 activity were determined by the temporal pattern of stimulation, namely, a combination of stimulation period length, stimulation duration, and time between stimuli. The complex, nonlinear relationship between stimulation and MPK-1 activation was explained by the properties of intracellular calcium responses upstream of MPK-1. Thus, we visualized the dynamics of MAPK activation in a sensory neuron in living nematodes in response to complex stimuli and present a reporter that can be used in higher eukaryotes to test in silico predictions regarding the MAPK pathway.
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