Long-Term Nicotine Adaptation in Caenorhabditis elegans Involves PKC-Dependent Changes in Nicotinic Receptor Abundance

• Published in: The Journal of neuroscience 2000-12, Vol.20 (23), p.8802-8811
• Main Authors: Waggoner, Laura E, Dickinson, Kari A, Poole, Daniel S, Tabuse, Yo, Miwa, Johji, Schafer, William R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation, Physiological - drug effects; Animals; Animals, Genetically Modified; Antinematodal Agents - pharmacology; Caenorhabditis elegans - drug effects; Caenorhabditis elegans - genetics; Caenorhabditis elegans - metabolism; Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Down-Regulation - drug effects; Genes, Reporter; Helminth Proteins - genetics; Helminth Proteins - metabolism; Levamisole - pharmacology; Nicotine - pharmacology; Nicotinic Agonists - pharmacology; Oviposition - drug effects; Protein Kinase C - metabolism; Protein Subunits; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases - metabolism; Receptors, Nicotinic - genetics; Receptors, Nicotinic - metabolism; Time
• ISSN: 0270-6474; 1529-2401
• DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.20-23-08802.2000

Chronic exposure to nicotine leads to long-term changes in both the abundance and activity of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, processes thought to contribute to nicotine addiction. We have found that in Caenorhabditis elegans, prolonged nicotine treatment results in a long-lasting decrease in the abundance of nicotinic receptors that control egg-laying. In naive animals, acute exposure to cholinergic agonists led to the efficient stimulation of egg-laying, a response mediated by a nicotinic receptor functionally expressed in the vulval muscle cells. Overnight exposure to nicotine led to a specific and long-lasting change in egg-laying behavior, which rendered the nicotine-adapted animals insensitive to simulation of egg-laying by the nicotinic agonist and was accompanied by a promoter-independent reduction in receptor protein levels. Mutants defective in the gene tpa-1, which encodes a homolog of protein kinase C (PKC), failed to undergo adaptation to nicotine; after chronic nicotine exposure they remained sensitive to cholinergic agonists and retained high levels of receptor protein in the vulval muscles. These results suggest that PKC-dependent signaling pathways may promote nicotine adaptation via regulation of nicotinic receptor synthesis or degradation.