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Creating Defined Gaseous Environments to Study the Effects of Hypoxia on C. elegans
Published on: July 20, 2012
Sex Alters Hypoxic Responses in Caenorhabditis elegans
Andrew P Bischer1, Katherine E Neyland1, Nada Ahmed Selim2
1Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, US.
None:
The expression of shared behaviors can exhibit sexual dimorphism, which is often mediated by neuronal sex. However, the role of behavioral entrainment by environmental conditions as a function of underlying sex has been less studied. Here, we demonstrate that Caenorhabditis elegans males are more resistant to long-term hypoxic injury than hermaphrodites and that their locomotory speed exhibits reduced sensitivity to acute changes in oxygen. Using cell-specific sex reversal, we investigated whether neuronal biological sex influences oxygen-dependent locomotory behavior. These data suggest that the overexpression of sex determination pathway components can modify hypoxic behavioral responses independently of underlying biological sex.

