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Article

  • The EMBO Journal (2004) 23, 1101 - 1111
  • doi:10.1038/sj.emboj.7600107

Published online: 26 February 2004

Worms taste bitter: ASH neurons, QUI-1, GPA-3 and ODR-3 mediate quinine avoidance in Caenorhabditis elegans

Massimo A Hilliard1, Carmela Bergamasco1, Salvatore Arbucci1, Ronald HA Plasterk2 and Paolo Bazzicalupo1

  1. Institute of Genetics and Biophysics, Adriano Buzzati Traverso, CNR, Napoli, Italy
  2. The Hubrecht Laboratory, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Correspondence to:

Paolo Bazzicalupo, Institute of Genetics and Biophysics, 'Adriano Buzzati Traverso', CNR, Via Pietro Castellino 111, 80131 Naples, Italy. Tel.: +39 081 613 2364; E-mail: bazzical@igb.na.cnr.it

Received 10 June 2003; Accepted 9 January 2004

An animal's ability to detect and avoid toxic compounds in the environment is crucial for survival. We show that the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans avoids many water-soluble substances that are toxic and that taste bitter to humans. We have used laser ablation and a genetic cell rescue strategy to identify sensory neurons involved in the avoidance of the bitter substance quinine, and found that ASH, a polymodal nociceptive neuron that senses many aversive stimuli, is the principal player in this response. Two G protein alpha subunits GPA-3 and ODR-3, expressed in ASH and in different, nonoverlapping sets of sensory neurons, are necessary for the response to quinine, although the effect of odr-3 can only be appreciated in the absence of gpa-3. We identified and cloned a new gene, qui-1, necessary for quinine and SDS avoidance. qui-1 codes for a novel protein with WD-40 domains and which is expressed in the avoidance sensory neurons ASH and ADL.

  • Keywords:

    • avoidance,
    • bitter taste,
    • chemosensory neurons,
    • quinine,
    • WD-40 domain