The Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Center for Biology and Medicine at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, Molecular Neurobiology Program, New York, New York, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2012;7(3):e34014. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0034014. Epub 2012 Mar 29.
Many animals possess neurons specialized for the detection of carbon dioxide (CO(2)), which acts as a cue to elicit behavioral responses and is also an internally generated product of respiration that regulates animal physiology. In many organisms how such neurons detect CO(2) is poorly understood. We report here a mechanism that endows C. elegans neurons with the ability to detect CO(2). The ETS-5 transcription factor is necessary for the specification of CO(2)-sensing BAG neurons. Expression of a single ETS-5 target gene, gcy-9, which encodes a receptor-type guanylate cyclase, is sufficient to bypass a requirement for ets-5 in CO(2)-detection and transforms neurons into CO(2)-sensing neurons. Because ETS-5 and GCY-9 are members of gene families that are conserved between nematodes and vertebrates, a similar mechanism might act in the specification of CO(2)-sensing neurons in other phyla.
许多动物都拥有专门用于检测二氧化碳 (CO(2)) 的神经元，二氧化碳作为一种线索，可以引发行为反应，也是呼吸过程中产生的一种内源性产物，能够调节动物的生理机能。然而，目前我们对于许多生物的此类神经元如何检测二氧化碳知之甚少。在这里，我们报告了一种使秀丽隐杆线虫神经元具备检测二氧化碳能力的机制。ETS-5 转录因子对于 CO(2)感应 BAG 神经元的特化是必需的。单个 ETS-5 靶基因 gcy-9 的表达，该基因编码一种受体型鸟苷酸环化酶，足以绕过 ETS-5 在 CO(2)检测中的需求，并将神经元转化为 CO(2)感应神经元。由于 ETS-5 和 GCY-9 是线虫和脊椎动物之间基因家族的成员，因此类似的机制可能作用于其他门的 CO(2)感应神经元的特化。
