RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
A1 Bo-mi Song
A1 Serge Faumont
A1 Shawn Lockery
A1 Leon Avery
T1 Recognition of familiar food activates feeding via an endocrine serotonin signal in Caenorhabditis elegans
JF eLife
JO eLife Sciences
YR 2013
FD eLife Sciences Publications Limited
VO 2
DO 10.7554/eLife.00329
UL http://elife.elifesciences.org/content/2/e00329.abstract
AB Bo-mi Song1,2,*, Serge Faumont3, Shawn Lockery3 and Leon Avery11Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, United States2Department of Molecular Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States3Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States↵*For correspondence: bomi.song{at}gmail.comPeggy Mason, Reviewing editorUniversity of Chicago, United States↵BS, Conception and design, Acquisition of data, Analysis and interpretation of data, Drafting or revising the article↵SF, Acquisition of data, Analysis and interpretation of data, Drafting or revising the article↵SL, Conception and design, Acquisition of data, Analysis and interpretation of data, Contributed unpublished essential data or reagents↵LA, Conception and design, Analysis and interpretation of data, Drafting or revising the articleAbstractFamiliarity discrimination has a significant impact on the pattern of food intake across species. However, the mechanism by which the recognition memory controls feeding is unclear. Here, we show that the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans forms a memory of particular foods after experience and displays behavioral plasticity, increasing the feeding response when they subsequently recognize the familiar food. We found that recognition of familiar food activates the pair of ADF chemosensory neurons, which subsequently increase serotonin release. The released serotonin activates the feeding response mainly by acting humorally and directly activates SER-7, a type 7 serotonin receptor, in MC motor neurons in the feeding organ. Our data suggest that worms sense the taste and/or smell of novel bacteria, which overrides the stimulatory effect of familiar bacteria on feeding by suppressing the activity of ADF or its upstream neurons. Our study provides insight into the mechanism by which familiarity discrimination alters behavior.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00329.001Author keywordsFeedingrecognitionFoodSerotoninNervous systemResearch organismC. elegansFootnotes↵The authors declare that no competing interests existReceived October 19, 2012.Accepted December 22, 2012.Copyright © 2013, Song et alThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.