Dissecting a central flip-flop circuit that integratescontradictory sensory cues in C. elegans feedingregulation

摘要

Feeding behaviour is modulated by both environmental cues and internal physiological states.Appetite is commonly boosted by the pleasant smell (or appearance) of food and destroyedby a bad taste. In reality, animals sense multiple environmental cues at the same time and it isnot clear how these sensory inputs are integrated and a decision is made to regulate feedingbehaviour accordingly. Here we show that feeding behaviour in Caenorhabditis elegans can beeither facilitated by attractive odours or suppressed by repellents. By identifying mutants thatare defective for sensory-mediated feeding regulation, we dissected a central flip-flop circuitthat integrates two contradictory sensory inputs and generates bistable hormone outputto regulate feeding behaviour. As feeding regulation is fundamental to animal survival, wespeculate that the basic organizational logic identified here in C. elegans is likely convergentthroughout different phyla.