Alanine tRNAs Translate Environment Into Behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans

nematodes produce and maintain imprints of attractive chemosensory cues to which they are exposed early in life. Early odor-exposure increases adult chemo-attraction to the same cues. Imprinting is transiently or stably inherited, depending on the number of exposed generations. We show here that the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in cell and developmental biology 2020-10, Vol.8, p.571359-571359
Main Authors: Fernandes De Abreu, Diana Andrea, Salinas-Giegé, Thalia, Drouard, Laurence, Remy, Jean-Jacques
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal biology
behavior
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology
Cell and Developmental Biology
chemoattraction
epitranscriptome
Genomics
Invertebrate Zoology
Life Sciences
plasticity
tRNA
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Summary:nematodes produce and maintain imprints of attractive chemosensory cues to which they are exposed early in life. Early odor-exposure increases adult chemo-attraction to the same cues. Imprinting is transiently or stably inherited, depending on the number of exposed generations. We show here that the Alanine tRNA (UGC) plays a central role in regulating chemo-attraction. Naive worms fed on tRNA (UGC) purified from odor-experienced worms, acquire odor-specific imprints. Chemo-attractive responses require the tRNA-modifying Elongator complex sub-units 1 ( ) and 3 ( ) genes. deletions impair chemo-attraction, which is fully restored by wild-type tRNA (UGC) feeding. A stably inherited decrease of odor-specific responses ensues from early odor-exposition of deletion mutants. tRNA (UGC) may adopt various chemical forms to mediate the cross-talk between innately-programmed and environment-directed chemo-attractive behavior.
ISSN:2296-634X
2296-634X
DOI:10.3389/fcell.2020.571359