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Science 338 (6106): 543-545

Copyright © 2012 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Vasopressin/Oxytocin-Related Signaling Regulates Gustatory Associative Learning in C. elegans

Isabel Beets,1 Tom Janssen,1 Ellen Meelkop,1,* Liesbet Temmerman,1 Nick Suetens,1 Suzanne Rademakers,2 Gert Jansen,2 Liliane Schoofs1,{dagger}

Abstract: Vasopressin- and oxytocin-related neuropeptides are key regulators of animal physiology, including water balance and reproduction. Although these neuropeptides also modulate social behavior and cognition in mammals, the mechanism for influencing behavioral plasticity and the evolutionary origin of these effects are not well understood. Here, we present a functional vasopressin- and oxytocin-like signaling system in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Through activation of its receptor NTR-1, a vasopressin/oxytocin-related neuropeptide, designated nematocin, facilitates the experience-driven modulation of salt chemotaxis, a type of gustatory associative learning in C. elegans. Our study suggests that vasopressin and oxytocin neuropeptides have ancient roles in modulating sensory processing in neural circuits that underlie behavioral plasticity.

1 Department of Biology, Functional Genomics and Proteomics Unit, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
2 Department of Cell Biology, Erasmus MC, 3000 CA Rotterdam, Netherlands.

* Present address: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: liliane.schoofs{at}bio.kuleuven.be

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Mood of a Worm.
S. W. Emmons (2012)
Science 338, 475-476
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