Genetics of food choice behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

Caenorhabditis elegans is a free living soil nematode and thus in its natural habitat, C. elegans interacts with many different soil bacteria. Some of the natural bacterial food maybe good food sources, while some of them maybe pathogenic for worms. Thus, we undertook a study to locate some soil bacteria as a natural food source for worms in comparison to laboratory bacteria E.coli. We also suggested the possible sensory neurons by which C.elegans senses and responds to the food. In this study, the food preference by binary choice assay was determined for the wild type worms and mutants defective in chemosensory receptors genes. The bacterial strains preferred(choice shown for test bacteria) by wild type worms were then scored for pharyngeal pumping and the resultant lifespan was recorded. Our results suggested that the odorant receptor mutants are defective in preference assay compared to wild type C.elegans. We conclude that the odorant receptor genes are involved in the bacterial choice preference in the habitat of C.elegans.