title: Regulation of the cellular heat shock response in Caenorhabditis elegans by thermosensory neurons.
abstract: Temperature pervasively affects all cellular processes. In response to a rapid increase in temperature, all cells undergo a heat shock response, an ancient and highly conserved program of stress-inducible gene expression, to reestablish cellular homeostasis. In isolated cells, the heat shock response is initiated by the presence of misfolded proteins and therefore thought to be cell-autonomous. In contrast, we show that within the metazoan Caenorhabditis elegans, the heat shock response of somatic cells is not cell-autonomous but rather depends on the thermosensory neuron, AFD, which senses ambient temperature and regulates temperature-dependent behavior. We propose a model whereby this loss of cell autonomy serves to integrate behavioral, metabolic, and stress-related responses to establish an organismal response to environmental change.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology, Rice Institute for Biomedical Research, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
authors.forename: Veena
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Prahlad
authors.forename: Tyler
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cornelius
authors.forename: Richard I
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Morimoto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D017238:Genes, Helminth; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D018869:Heat-Shock Response / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009154:Mutation; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000502:physiology*; D010675:Pheromones / Q000502:physiology; D017510:Protein Folding; D013697:Thermosensing / Q000502:physiology*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins; D010675:Pheromones; D014157:Transcription Factors; C474710:heat shock factor-1, C elegans