Deficient mechanosensation in decreases precipice response in .

The precipice response in is a little-understood phenomenon in which worms move rapidly away from edges. We hypothesized that mechanosensation underlies the precipice response and that mechanosensory mutants would exhibit the precipice response less often than N2 wild type worms. We found that mutants, with severe loss of mechanosensation, exhibited the precipice response at a lower rate than N2, but and mutants, with partial loss of response to mechanical stimuli, responded at a similar rate to N2. These results provide a characterization of the precipice response and implicate a role for mechanosensation in this behavior.