| Popis: |
Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes produce and keep imprints of attractive chemosensory cues to which they are exposed early in life. These imprints enhance adult chemo-attraction to the same cues. Depending on the number of odor-exposed generations, imprinting is transiently or stably inherited. Strinkingly, we have found that early odor-exposed C. elegans produce odor-specific forms of the transfer RNAAla (UGC). Naive animals fed on these tRNAs acquire transient or stable odor-specific imprinting. The tRNAAla (UGC) controls C. elegans chemo-attractive responses through the multifunctional Elongator complex. Mutations that affect the functions of Elongator sub-units 1 or 3, either impaired chemo-attraction, or definitely abolish responses to the odors nematodes were exposed. We hypothesize that early olfactory experiences translate into tRNAAla (UGC) bearing odor-specific signatures. These diffusible odor memory, together with Elongator, can stably reprogram the C. elegans chemo-attractive behavior. |
