Odor-dependent temporal dynamics in C. elegans odor memory
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Abstract
Animals sense an enormous number of cues in their environments, and, over time, can form memories and associations to some of these. The nervous system remarkably maintains the specificity of memory to each of the cues. Here we asked whether the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans adjusts the temporal dynamics of odor memory formation depending on the specific odor sensed. C. elegans senses a multitude of odors, and memory formation to some of these odors requires activity of the cGMP-dependent protein kinase EGL-4 in the AWC sensory neuron. We identified a panel of 17 attractive odors, some of which have not been tested before, and determined that the majority of these odors require the AWC primary sensory neuron for sensation. We then devised a novel assay to assess odor behavior over time for a single population of animals. We used this assay to evaluate the temporal dynamics of memory formation to 13 odors and find that memory formation occurs early in some odors and later in others. We then examined EGL-4 localization in early-trending and late-trending odors over time and found that the timing of memory formation correlated with the timing of nuclear accumulation of EGL-4 in the AWC neuron. We demonstrate that odor memory formation in C. elegans can be used as a model to study the timing of memory formation to different sensory cues.
Cite this as
2018. Odor-dependent temporal dynamics in C. elegans odor memory. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26451v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26451v1note This preprint is not peer-reviewed. You may wish to reference the subsequent peer-reviewed version of this article.
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This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
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Supplemental Information
Figure S1. adp-1 mutants do not display odor memory to 4-chlorobenzyl mercaptan and 2,4,5-trimethylthiazole
Attraction to 4-chlorobenzyl mercaptan (top) and 2,4,5-trimethylthiazole (bottom) in the real-time behavior assay in wild-type N2 (blue) and adp-1 mutant animals (orange). Error bars indicate standard error.
Figure S2. C. elegans displays late memory formation to 2,4,5-trimethylthiazole in the standard assay
Wild-type N2 animals show early memory formation to the odor benzaldehyde (dark blue), and late memory formation to 2,4,5-trimethylthiazole (red). Error bars indicate standard error.
Raw data for table 1
Attraction index data to each odor for each trial is found in each datasheet.
Raw data for Fig 1, Fig 2, and Supplemental Figure 2
Attraction data is shown for each trial at each time point for standard and real-time assays.
Raw data for Figure 4 and Table 2
Percent nuclear localized GFP::EGL-4 is indicated for each time point for each trial for each odor.
Raw data for Figure 3 and Supplemental Figure 1
Attraction data is shown for each time point for each trial for each odor in each datasheet.
Additional Information
Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
Jae Im Choi performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Hee Kyung Lee performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Hae Su Kim performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.
So Young Park performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Kyoung-hye Yoon conceived and designed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Jin I Lee conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant 2016R1D1A1B03932745 to J.I.L and Grant 2016R1C1B1011269 to KY. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
