An Assay for Measuring the Effects of Ethanol on the Locomotion Speed of <em>Caenorhabditis elegans</em>

Abstract

Alcohol use disorders are a significant public health concern, for which there are few effective treatment strategies. One difficulty that has delayed the development of more effective treatments is the relative lack of understanding of the molecular underpinnings of the effects of ethanol on behavior. The nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), provides a useful model in which to generate and test hypotheses about the molecular effects of ethanol. Here, we describe an assay that has been developed and used to examine the roles of particular genes and environmental factors in behavioral responses to ethanol, in which locomotion is the behavioral output. Ethanol dose-dependently causes an acute depression of crawling on an agar surface. The effects are dynamic; animals exposed to a high concentration demonstrate an initial strong depression of crawling, referred to here as initial sensitivity, and then partially recover locomotion speed despite the continued presence of the drug. This ethanol-induced behavioral plasticity is referred to here as the development of acute functional tolerance. This assay has been used to demonstrate that these two phenotypes are distinct and genetically separable. The straightforward locomotion assay described here is suitable for examining the effects of both genetic and environmental manipulations on these acute behavioral responses to ethanol in C. elegans.

The Sensitivity of the Crayfish Reward System to Mammalian Drugs of Abuse

“…These genes are associated with neural function in the crustacean systems and could provide important new insights to understand the organization of circuits in the control of behaviors. Other recent studies (Søvik et al, 2014 ; Zhu et al, 2014 ; Davies et al, 2015 ; Grotewiel and Bettinger, 2015 ; Hawkins et al, 2015 ; Engleman et al, 2016 ) indicate that an invertebrate system is a powerful tool that can be used to investigate the neuroanatomical, molecular and behavioral processes underlying the addictive process. Highlighting these accomplishments is vital in showing how simpler model systems can lead to exploration and discovery in mammalian systems as well.…”

Effects of ethanol intake on anti-oxidant responses and the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans

“…The results revealed that alcohol significantly affected nematode movement; locomotion was enhanced by exposure to a low concentration of alcohol (1%) but slowed down under high concentrations of alcohol, resulting in incoordination and even apparent paralysis and limited eating. Recently, Davies, Blackwell, Raabe, and Bettinger (2015) studied the effects of acute long-term alcohol exposure on C. elegans locomotive behavior. They reported that nematodes exposed to a high concentration of alcohol (400 mM) demonstrated a strong initial decrease in crawling but later partially resumed normal locomotive speed despite the continued presence of alcohol.…”

The alcohol dehydrogenase with a broad range of substrate specificity regulates vitality and reproduction of the plant-parasitic nematodeBursaphelenchus xylophilus

“…elegans. Ethanol could dose-dependently cause an acute depression of the nematode crawling on an agar surface, but the nematode could partially recover its locomotion speed despite the continued presence of the drug (Davies et al ., 2015). Starvation induces collective behaviour in L1 larvae of C .…”