Hypoxia induces food leaving in C. elegans

Hypoxia alters eating behavior in different animals. In C. elegans , hypoxia induces a strong food leaving response. We found that this behavior was independent of the known O ₂ response mechanisms including acute O ₂ sensation and HIF-1 signaling of chronic hypoxia response. Mutating egl-3 and egl-21 , encoding the neuropeptide pro-protein convertase and carboxypeptidase, led to defects in hypoxia induced food leaving, suggesting that neuropeptidergic signaling was required for this response. However, we failed to identify any neuropeptide mutants that were severely defective in hypoxia induced food leaving, suggesting that multiple neuropeptides act redundantly to modulate this behavior.