Abstract(s)
In mammals, glutamate is an important excitatory neurotransmitter. Glutamate and
glutamate receptors are found in areas specifically involved in pain sensation, transmission
and transduction such as peripheral nervous system, spinal cord and brain. In C. elegans,
several studies have suggested glutamate pathways are associated with withdrawal
responses to mechanical stimuli and to chemical repellents. However, few evidences
demonstrate that glutamate pathways are important to mediate nocifensive response to
noxious heat. The thermal avoidance behavior of C. elegans was studied and results
illustrated that mutants of glutamate receptors (glr-1, glr-2, nmr-1, nmr-2) behaviors was
not affected. However, results revealed that all strains of eat-4 mutants, C. elegans
vesicular glutamate transporters, displayed defective thermal avoidance behaviors. Due to
the interplay between the glutamate and the FLP-18/FLP-21/NPR-1 pathways, we
analyzed the effectors FLP-18 and FLP-21 at the protein level, we did not
observebiologically significant differences compared to N2 (WT) strain (fold-change < 2)
except for the IK602 strain. The data presented in this manuscript reveals that glutamate
signaling pathways are essential to elicit a nocifensive response to noxious heat in C.
elegans.