Behavioral motifs and neural pathways coordinating O2 responses and aggregation in C. elegans.

Background: Simple stimuli can evoke complex behavioral responses coordinated by multiple neural circuits. O(2) is an important environmental variable for most animals. The nematode C.

Experience-dependent modulation of C. elegans behavior by ambient oxygen.

Background: Ambient oxygen (O2) influences the behavior of organisms from bacteria to man. In C. elegans, an atypical O2 binding soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), GCY-35, regulates O2 responses.

Inhibition of Caenorhabditis elegans social feeding by FMRFamide-related peptide activation of NPR-1.

Social and solitary feeding in natural Caenorhabditis elegans isolates are associated with two alleles of the orphan G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) NPR-1: social feeders contain NPR-1 215F, whereas solitary feeders contain NPR-1 215V. Here we identify FMRFamide-related neuropeptides (FaRPs) encoded by the flp-18 and flp-21 genes as NPR-1 ligands and show that these peptides can differentially activate the NPR-1 215F and NPR-1 215V receptors. Multicopy overexpression of flp-21 transformed wild social animals into solitary feeders.