Heat Stress and Agonists of Muscarinic Cholinergic Receptors Modulate Sensitivity of Nicotinic Cholinergic Receptors in Soil Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

We studied the effect of moderate heat stress (30oC) and muscarinic cholinergic receptor agonists arecoline and pilocarpine on sensitivity of the behavior of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans of N2 line to the action of the agonist of nicotinic cholinergic receptor agonist levamisole. Heat stress and muscarinic cholinergic receptor agonists increased the sensitivity of swimming induced by mechanical stimulation to levamisole (32-64 μM), which manifested in dyscoordination of locomotor muscles during swimming and complete loss of ability to swim. Combined exposure to heat stress and muscarinic cholinergic receptor agonists revealed their synergism in the influence on sensitivity of swimming behavior to levamisole: heating to 30oC potentiated the effect of arecoline and arecoline potentiated the effect of heat stress.

Opposite effects of moderate heat stress and hyperthermia on cholinergic system of soil nematodes Caenorhabditis elegans and Caenorhabditis briggsae.

Cholinergic system plays important role in all functions of organisms of free-living soil nematodes C. elegans and C. briggsae.

[On the role of gene of SER-4 serotonin receptor in thermotolerance of Caenorhabditis elegans behavior].

Serotonin reduces the behavior tolerance of Caenorhabditis elegans of the N2 wild-type strain (swimming induced by the mechanical stimulus) to a temperature of 36 degrees C. The sensitivity to the serotonin influence on the behavior thermotolerance remains intact in strains with null mutations of mod-1 (ok103) and ser-1 (ok345) serotonin receptor genes, and is almost completely lost in the ser-4 (ok512) strain with null mutation in the gene of the SER-4 serotonin receptor, which is a homologue of 5-HT1 mammalian serotonin receptor. In addition, nematodes of the ser-4 (ok512) strain have high behavior thermotolerance in the absence of the exogenous serotonin compared to the N2 strain.

Ethanol sensitizes the nervous system of Caenorhabditis elegans nematode to heat stress.

Ethanol sensitizes the nervous system of C. elegans to heat stress, which manifested in exacerbation of locomotion disturbances induced by exposure to constant temperature 36°C. Adaptation of C.