title: Chronic nicotine exposure augments gustatory plasticity in Caenorhabditis elegans: involvement of dopamine signaling.
abstract: The chemotaxis of wild-type NaCl-conditioned nematodes exposed to 100 mM NaCl, maintained on a growth medium containing 0.3 mM nicotine from first larva to young adult (YA) hermaphrodite, was significantly weaker than the chemotaxis of those maintained on a medium without nicotine. The result indicates that chronic nicotine exposure augments gustatory plasticity. The gustatory plasticity was also augmented when tph-1 mutants, with a defect in serotonin biosynthesis, were maintained on a medium containing nicotine until the YA stage. Chronic nicotine exposure did not augment gustatory plasticity in bas-1 mutants, which had defects in both serotonin and dopamine biosynthesis, and in cat-2 mutants, which had a defect in dopamine biosynthesis. However, augmentation of gustatory plasticity was observed when bas-1 and cat-2 mutants were maintained on a growth medium containing nicotine along with dopamine, suggesting that dopamine signaling is involved in the augmentation of gustatory plasticity due to chronic nicotine exposure.
authors.affiliation: a Laboratory of Behavioral Physiology, Faculty of Engineering , Iwate University , Morioka , Japan.
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsuura
authors.forename: Takuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Urushihata
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000187:drug effects*; D009538:Nicotine / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects*; D055697:Taste Perception / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic; D009538:Nicotine; D004298:Dopamine
keywords: C. elegans; chemotaxis; chronic nicotine effect; dopamine; gustatory plasticity