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Brief Communication

Nature Neuroscience 11, 871–873 (1 August 2008) | doi:10.1038/nn.2170

Control of thermotactic behavior via coupling of a TRP channel to a phospholipase C signaling cascade

Young Kwon , Hye-Seok Shim , Xiaoyue Wang & Craig Montell

In animals such as the fruitfly, even minor deviations in environmental temperature can have major impacts on development and lifespan. Here we demonstrated that the ability of Drosophila melanogaster larvae to discriminate between the optimal temperature of 18 |[deg]|C and slightly higher temperatures (19–24 |[deg]|C) depended on the TRPA1 channel, which functioned downstream of a phospholipase C–dependent signaling cascade similar to that used in fly phototransduction.