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Dauer Development Modulates Olfactory Behavior
Johnny Vertiz1, Heather Carstensen1, Ray Hong1
1Department of Biology, California State University, Northridge, Northridge, USA.
Abstract:
Reproductive adults and developmentally arrested larvae often occupy different ecological niches and thus are expected to respond differently to environmental stimuli. To understand the genes that coordinate dauer development and olfactory behavior, we examined adult and dauer C. elegans in wild-type and dauer constitutive mutants (Daf-c). We found all dauers showed decreased attraction to all three odorants tested compared to adults, with daf-7 dauer larva (DL) exhibiting a concentration-dependent preference shift towards isoamyl alcohol, suggesting that the TGF-ß pathway is involved in both dauer regulation and dauer-specific odortaxis.
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