Summary
Using a technique of recording the behavior of individual nematodes during exposure to various solutions, it was demonstrated thatC. elegans made more reversal behaviors after transfer to solutions of lower oxygen tension than higher. The response was stronger after the first hour in the apparatus than initially. This change was not dependent on reduced oxygen availability during the initial period. Starvation is the most likely cause of this change. A variety of mutant strains ofC. elegans that are defective in response to most known chemotactic stimuli, including two strains that have been shown to be severely abnormal in the ciliated endings of all sensory neurons of the worm's snout, all responded to changes in oxygen tension. This observation suggests that oxygen is sensed internally rather than by specialized peripheral receptor cells.
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I thank Deborah Higgins for technical assistance. This work was supported by a grant awarded by the Biomedical Research Support Grant Program of the National Institutes of Health.
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Dusenbery, D.B. Appetitive response of the nematodeCaenorhabditis elegans to oxygen. J. Comp. Physiol. 136, 333–336 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00657353
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00657353