title: Short term memory of Caenorhabditis elegans against bacterial pathogens involves CREB transcription factor.
abstract: One of the key issues pertaining to the control of memory is to respond to a consistently changing environment or microbial niche present in it. Human cyclic AMP response element binding protein (CREB) transcription factor which plays a crucial role in memory has a homolog in C. elegans, crh-1. crh-1 appears to influence memory processes to certain extent by habituation of the host to a particular environment. The discrimination between the pathogen and a non-pathogen is essential for C. elegans in a microbial niche which determines its survival. Training the nematodes in the presence of a virulent pathogen (S. aureus) and an opportunistic pathogen (P. mirabilis) separately exhibits a different behavioural paradigm. This appears to be dependent on the CREB transcription factor. Here we show that C. elegans homolog crh-1 helps in memory response for a short term against the interacting pathogens. Following conditioning of the nematodes to S. aureus and P. mirabilis, the wild type nematodes exhibited a positive response towards the respective pathogens which diminished slowly after 2h. By contrast, the crh-1 deficient nematodes had a defective memory post conditioning. The molecular data reinforces the importance of crh-1 gene in retaining the memory of nematode. Our results also suggest that involvement of neurotransmitters play a crucial role in modulating the memory of the nematode with the assistance of CREB. Therefore, we elucidate that CREB is responsible for the short term memory response in C. elegans against bacterial pathogens.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, 630 003 Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Udayakumar
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Prithika
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, 630 003 Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Ramaraj
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vikneswari
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, 630 003 Tamil Nadu, India. Electronic address: bsuryar@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Krishnaswamy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Balamurugan
mesh_terms: D000448:Aldicarb / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000276:immunology*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000502:physiology*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017362:Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007156:Immunologic Memory / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation; D010766:Phosphorylation; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C556191:CRH-1 protein, C elegans; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D017362:Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein; D014157:Transcription Factors; D000448:Aldicarb
keywords: Aldicarb; CREB; Conditioning; Memory; Neurotransmitters