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Serotonin promotes exploitation in complex environments by accelerating decision-making
- Source :
- BMC Biology
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2016.
-
Abstract
- Background Fast responses can provide a competitive advantage when resources are inhomogeneously distributed. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans was shown to modulate locomotion on a lawn of bacterial food in serotonin (5-HT)-dependent manners. However, potential roles for serotonergic signaling in responding to food discovery are poorly understood. Results We found that 5-HT signaling in C. elegans facilitates efficient exploitation in complex environments by mediating a rapid response upon encountering food. Genetic or cellular manipulations leading to deficient serotonergic signaling resulted in gradual responses and defective exploitation of a patchy foraging landscape. Physiological imaging revealed that the NSM serotonergic neurons responded acutely upon encounter with newly discovered food and were key to rapid responses. In contrast, the onset of responses of ADF serotonergic neurons preceded the physical encounter with the food. The serotonin-gated chloride channel MOD-1 and the ortholog of mammalian 5-HT1 metabotropic serotonin receptors SER-4 acted in synergy to accelerate decision-making. The relevance of responding rapidly was demonstrated in patchy environments, where the absence of 5-HT signaling was detrimental to exploitation. Conclusions Our results implicate 5-HT in a novel form of decision-making, demonstrate its fitness consequences, suggest that NSM and ADF act in concert to modulate locomotion in complex environments, and identify the synergistic action of a channel and a metabotropic receptor in accelerating C. elegans decision-making. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12915-016-0232-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Serotonin
Physiology
Foraging
5-HT
Plant Science
Environment
Biology
Bioinformatics
Serotonergic
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
03 medical and health sciences
Structural Biology
Animals
Caenorhabditis elegans
Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Rapid response
5-HT receptor
2. Zero hunger
Appetitive Behavior
Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
Serotonin (5-HT)
Patchy environments
Resource distribution
Cell Biology
030104 developmental biology
Metabotropic receptor
Slowdown
C. elegans
Chloride channel
Foraging systems
Re-feeding
Signal transduction
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Neuroscience
Locomotion
Research Article
Decision-making
Signal Transduction
Developmental Biology
Biotechnology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17417007
- Volume :
- 14
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- BMC Biology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e65b36db094ca7b1a5cfdee0561ff2d8