Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
Nat Commun. 2011;2:315. doi: 10.1038/ncomms1308.
Most animals can distinguish two distinct types of touch stimuli: gentle (innocuous) and harsh (noxious/painful) touch, however, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Caenorhabditis elegans is a useful model for the study of gentle touch sensation. However, little is known about harsh touch sensation in this organism. Here we characterize harsh touch sensation in C. elegans. We show that C. elegans exhibits differential behavioural responses to harsh touch and gentle touch. Laser ablations identify distinct sets of sensory neurons and interneurons required for harsh touch sensation at different body segments. Optogenetic stimulation of the circuitry can drive behaviour. Patch-clamp recordings reveal that TRP family and amiloride-sensitive Na(+) channels mediate touch-evoked currents in different sensory neurons. Our work identifies the neural circuits and characterizes the sensory channels mediating harsh touch sensation in C. elegans, establishing it as a genetic model for studying this sensory modality.
轻柔(无害)和粗糙(有害/疼痛)触摸,然而,其潜在机制尚不清楚。秀丽隐杆线虫是研究轻柔触摸感觉的有用模型。然而,关于该生物体的粗糙触摸感觉知之甚少。在这里,我们描述了秀丽隐杆线虫的粗糙触摸感觉。我们表明,秀丽隐杆线虫对粗糙触摸和轻柔触摸表现出不同的行为反应。激光消融鉴定了不同的感觉神经元和中间神经元集,这些神经元和中间神经元在不同的身体部位对粗糙触摸感觉是必需的。光遗传学刺激电路可以驱动行为。膜片钳记录显示,TRP 家族和阿米洛利敏感的 Na(+)通道在不同的感觉神经元中介导触摸诱发电流。我们的工作确定了介导秀丽隐杆线虫粗糙触摸感觉的神经回路,并描述了感觉通道,将其确立为研究这种感觉模式的遗传模型。