Neuropeptide Signaling Regulates Pheromone-Mediated Gene Expression of a Chemoreceptor Gene in C. elegans

Animals need to be able to alter their developmental and behavioral programs in response to changing environmental conditions. This developmental and behavioral plasticity is mainly mediated by changes in gene expression. The knowledge of the mechanisms by which environmental signals are transduced and integrated to modulate changes in sensory gene expression is limited. Exposure to ascaroside pheromone has been reported to alter the expression of a subset of putative G protein-coupled chemosensory receptor genes in the ASI chemosensory neurons of C. elegans (Kim et al., 2009; Nolan et al., 2002; Peckol et al., 1999). Here we show that ascaroside pheromone reversibly represses expression of the str-3 chemoreceptor gene in the ASI neurons. Repression of str-3 expression can be initiated only at the L1 stage, but expression is restored upon removal of ascarosides at any developmental stage. Pheromone receptors including SRBC-64/66 and SRG-36/37 are required for str-3 repression. Moreover, pheromone-mediated str-3 repression is mediated by FLP-18 neuropeptide signaling via the NPR-1 neuropeptide receptor. These results suggest that environmental signals regulate chemosensory gene expression together with internal neuropeptide signals which, in turn, modulate behavior.