Genetic control of encoding strategy in a food-sensing neural circuit.
Neuroendocrine circuits encode environmental information via changes in gene expression and other biochemical activities to regulate physiological responses. Previously, we showed thatdaf-7TGFβ andtph-1tryptophan hydroxylase expression in specific neurons encode food abundance to modulate lifespan inCaenorhabditis elegans, and uncovered cross- and self-regulation among these genes (Entchev et al., 2015). Here, we now extend these findings by showing that these interactions betweendaf-7andtph-1regulate redundancy and synergy among neurons in food encoding through coordinated control of circuit-level signal and noise properties. Our analysis further shows thatdaf-7andtph-1contribute to most of the food-responsiveness in the modulation of lifespan. We applied a computational model to capture the general coding features of this system. This model agrees with our previous genetic analysis and highlights the consequences of redundancy and synergy during information transmission, suggesting a rationale for the regulation of these information processing features.
Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
Giovanni
G
Diana
Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
Dhaval S
DS
Patel
Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
Eugeni V
EV
Entchev
Interdisciplinary Bioengineering Graduate Program, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United States.|Wallace H Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United States.|School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United States.
Mei
M
Zhan
Interdisciplinary Bioengineering Graduate Program, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United States.|Wallace H Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United States.|School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United States.
Hang
H
Lu
Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
QueeLim
0000-0003-1941-3828
Q
Ch'ng
D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005502:Food; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D010465:Perception; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; C102095:DAF-7 protein, C elegans; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta
C. elegans; Information Theory; Serotonin; Transforming Growth Factor Beta; computational biology; gene expression; neural code; neuroscience; systems biology