Doing a lot with a little: The molecular profile of a single sensory neuron links experience with behavioral plasticity

Thermosensation is a critical sensory modality for all organisms. C. elegans exhibits the remarkable ability to detect temperature changes of as little as 0.01C across a 10C temperature range, and exhibits experience-dependent thermosensory behaviors. Thermosensation in the innocuous temperature range is mediated primarily by the single AFD sensory neuron pair. I will discuss our lab’s work on identifying the signal transduction mechanisms and morphological specializations that confer extraordinary thermosensitivity onto AFD. I will also describe recent work describing how encoding of recent temperature experiences in the molecular profile of this single sensory neuron pair is sufficient to drive neuronal and behavioral plasticity.

Speaker: Piali Sengupta, Brandeis University