Sarkar Sreyan, Rogel-Hernandez Lucero E, Logan-Garbisch Theresa, Fryer Emily, Johnson Victoria, Goodman Miriam B
Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States.
Los Altos High School.
MicroPubl Biol. 2025 May 24;2025. doi: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001630. eCollection 2025.
Medicinal plants of the genus have been traditionally used around the world to treat several nervous system disorders, yet our understanding of how they do so remains poorly understood. To deepen the understanding of their ability to influence nervous system pathways, we explored the ability of the model organism to chemotax to crude extracts of and found that are weakly attracted to it. Upon investigating which chemical entities give rise to this behavior, we identified valeric acid (VA) as a primary candidate. Through chemotaxis assays, we show that wild-type are strongly attracted to VA in a dose-dependent manner. Chemotaxis assays with mutant strains of deficient in chemosensation indicate that the -dependent nervous pathways are most heavily responsible for detecting VA. However, -dependent pathways may also play a small role in regulating the worm's response to VA. Additionally, animals lacking AWC neurons are indifferent to this compound, and therefore, future research should focus on what molecular entities grant the AWC neurons the ability to detect VA.
该属的药用植物在世界各地传统上被用于治疗多种神经系统疾病，但我们对它们如何做到这一点的了解仍然很少。为了加深对它们影响神经系统通路能力的理解，我们研究了模式生物对[植物名称]粗提物进行趋化的能力，发现[模式生物名称]对其有微弱的吸引力。在研究是哪些化学实体导致这种行为时，我们确定戊酸（VA）是主要候选物。通过趋化分析，我们表明野生型[模式生物名称]以剂量依赖的方式对VA有强烈的吸引力。对缺乏化学感受能力的[模式生物名称]突变株进行的趋化分析表明，依赖[某一相关基因或通路名称]的神经通路在检测VA方面最为重要。然而，依赖[另一相关基因或通路名称]的通路在调节线虫对VA的反应中可能也起小作用。此外，缺乏AWC神经元的动物对这种化合物无动于衷，因此，未来的研究应集中在哪些分子实体赋予AWC神经元检测VA的能力上。
