Deficient mechanosensation in mec-3 decreases precipice response in C. elegans

The precipice response in Caenorhabditis elegans is a little-understood phenomenon in which worms move rapidly away from edges. We hypothesized that mechanosensation underlies the precipice response and that mechanosensory mutants would exhibit the precipice response less often than N2 wild type worms. We found that mec-3 mutants, with severe loss of mechanosensation, exhibited the precipice response at a lower rate than N2, but mec-10 and trp-4 mutants, with partial loss of response to mechanical stimuli, responded at a similar rate to N2. These results provide a characterization of the precipice response and implicate a role for mechanosensation in this behavior.