Underlying instincts: An appetite for survival

Date:
August 26, 2021
Source:
University of Rochester Medical Center
Summary:
Microscopic roundworms may hold the key to understanding what is
happening in the brain when the instinct of an animal changes in
order to survive.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Microscopic roundworms may hold the key to understanding what is
happening in the brain when the instinct of an animal changes in order
to survive. In a newly published paper in the journal Current Biology University of Rochester Medical Center researchers found that a signaling system in the brain changes to redirect the behavior of an animal when
their survival is at risk because there is not enough food.


==========================================================================
The experiments were conducted in C. elegans -- a microscopic roundworm
that has been used by scientists for decades to understand the basic organization and function of the central nervous system and how it
impacts behavior.

Researchers found C. elegans hermaphrodites (the equivalent of females
in this species) produce a pheromone that allows worms to monitor how
crowded their environment is and how much food there is to go around. When
food becomes scarce the aversion circuit is trigged in the animal and
it becomes repelled by the pheromone.

"The key thing we identified is a molecular mechanism whereby an
instinctive response can be suppressed under particular environmental conditions, namely, abundant food," said Douglas Portman, Ph.D., lead
author of the study and professor of Biomedical Genetics. "Adaptively it
makes sense that an animal's instinctive response would have this kind
of flexibility." This underlying repulsive mechanism to the pheromone
is present in both hermaphrodites and males, but researchers found that
in males, the mechanism is overridden by another circuit that causes
males to be attracted to the pheromone. A subtlety that could provide
an understanding of how the neural circuits work that cause this change
in behavior.

Understanding how basic decision-making mechanisms work gives insight into
the inner workings of a more complex brain. "These findings lend important insight into the mechanisms by which animals detect and integrate multiple sensory cues to make adaptive behavioral decisions. Understanding how
things like this work at the molecular level, provides a framework for understanding how much more complex brains work, and how genetic and environmental insults can 'break' things and lead to behavioral and
psychiatric disorders." Postdoctoral fellow Jintao Luo, Ph.D., with
the University of Rochester, co- authored this study. The research was supported with funding from the National Institute of General Medical
Sciences.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
University_of_Rochester_Medical_Center. Original written by Kelsie Smith Hayduk. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Jintao Luo, Douglas S. Portman. Sex-specific, pdfr-1-dependent
modulation
of pheromone avoidance by food abundance enables flexibility in C.

elegans foraging behavior. Current Biology, 2021; DOI: 10.1016/
j.cub.2021.07.069 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210826095027.htm

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