The worm's sense of smell: Development of functional diversity in the chemosensory system of Caenorhabditis elegans

摘要

Animalssensetheirchemicalenvironmentusingmultiplechemosensoryneurontypes,eachofwhichexhibitscharacteristicresponseproperties.ThechemosensoryneuronsofthenematodeemCaenorhabditiselegans/emprovideanexcellentsysteminwhichtoexplorethedevelopmentalmechanismsgivingrisetothisfunctionaldiversity.Inthisreview,wediscusstheprinciplesunderlyingthepatterning,generation,differentiation,anddiversificationofchemosensoryneuronsubtypesinemC.elegans/em.Currentknowledgeofthemolecularmechanismsunderlyingeachoftheseindividualstepsisderivedfromworkindifferentmodelorganisms.Itisessentialtodescribethecompletedevelopmentalpathwaysineachorganismtodeterminewhetherfunctionaldiversificationinchemosensorysystemsisachievedviaconservedornovelmechanisms.SuchacompletedescriptionmaybepossibleinemC.elegans./em/p/div