Development of specialized sensory neurons engages a nuclear receptor required for functional plasticity

Abstract

During development, the nervous system generates neurons that serve highly specialized roles and, accordingly, possess unique functional attributes. The chemosensory BAG neurons of C. elegans are striking exemplars of this. BAGs sense the respiratory gas carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and, in a context-dependent manner, switch from mediating avoidance of CO 2 to supporting CO 2 attraction. To determine mechanisms that support the physiology and plasticity of BAG neurons, we used tandem ChIP-seq and cell targeted RNA-seq to identify gene targets of the transcription factor ETS-5, which is required for BAG development. A functional screen of ETS-5 targets revealed that NHR-6, the sole C. elegans NR4A-type nuclear receptor, is required for BAG-mediated avoidance of CO 2 and regulates expression of a subset of BAG-specific genes. Unlike ets-5 mutants, which are defective for both attraction to and avoidance of CO 2 , nhr-6 mutants are fully competent for attraction. These data indicate that the remarkable ability of BAGs to adaptively assign positive or negative valence to a chemosensory stimulus requires a gene-regulatory program supported by an evolutionarily conserved type of nuclear receptor. We suggest that NHR-6 might be an example of a developmental mechanism for modular encoding of functional plasticity in the nervous system.

Exploring the putative microRNAs cross-kingdom transfer in Solanum lycopersicum-Meloidogyne incognita interactions

“…Silencing the Mi-odr and Mi-gpa genes could affect the nematode perception and infestation of the tomato root system ( Li et al., 2022 ). Loss of tgs-1 function in C. elegans leads to neurological phenotypes similar to those caused by the survival motor neuron (SMN) deficiency ( Chen et al, 2022 ) whereas gcy-9 mutants have different physiology in relation to adaptation and plasticity ( Rossillo and Ringstad, 2020 ). The C. elegans kal-1 gene affects epidermal morphogenesis by regulating the development of the substrate neuroblasts, and kal-1 mutants show delayed migration of the ventral neuroblasts ( Hudson et al., 2006 ).…”

Krill oil protects dopaminergic neurons from age-related degeneration through temporal transcriptome rewiring and suppression of several hallmarks of aging

“…In C. elegans , CEBP-1 has been shown to activate a gene expression program that protects axons from degeneration [ 56 ]. Genes regulated by NHR-6, a transcription factor expressed in chemosensory neurons found to be important for functional plasticity [ 57 ], were enriched in day 6 adults. It is possible that this might be directly related to DA neuron survival, as loss of the mammalian ortholog (NR4A1) exacerbated DA loss in rats [ 58 ].…”

Opponent vesicular transporters regulate the strength of glutamatergic neurotransmission in aC. eleganssensory circuit

“…From the RNASeq dataset in Horowitz et al , 2019 32 (GEO accession: GSE137267; Accession for BAG dataset: GSM4074164 and GSM4074165; Accession for unsorted cells dataset: GSM4074162 and GSM4074163), data analysis was performed essentially as described previously 56 . The coverage histograms for eat-4 and vst-1 were visualized using the Integrative Genomics Viewer 57 and the mean read counts were quantified using Deeptools 58 .…”