Soil-dwelling nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is widely found in close vicinity with different types of microbes, including bacteria, fungus, viruses, etc. However, sensing environmental stress, they often undergo a dormant state called dauer for better survival. Our current study aims to decipher chemosensory responses of worms under Salmonella Typhimurium (WT-STM) infection and how bacterial gene modulating worms' chemosensory system to mediate dauer larvae development. We initially observed the olfactory preference of C. elegans toward the pathogenic WT-STM. Although prolonged exposure showed enhanced lawn occupancy of worms in fepB mutant Salmonella strain with better associative learning response compared to WT-STM counterpart. We also found strong participation of AWC neuron for sensing ΔfepB strain and mediating worms’ behavioral plasticity. Overall out study implying a relationship between chemosensory neurons and bacteria emitted signals alter worms’ behavioral plasticity which help us to understand complex scenario of host-pathogen interaction.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.