Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Ghosh, D Dipon
• Lee, Dongyeop
• Jin, Xin
• Horvitz, H Robert
• Nitabach, Michael N

Titel

C. elegans discriminates colors to guide foraging

Ist Teil von

• Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 2021-03, Vol.371 (6533), p.1059-1063

Ort / Verlag

United States: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Color detection is used by animals of diverse phyla to navigate colorful natural environments and is thought to require evolutionarily conserved opsin photoreceptor genes. We report that roundworms can discriminate between colors despite the fact that they lack eyes and opsins. Specifically, we found that white light guides foraging decisions away from a blue-pigment toxin secreted by harmful bacteria. These foraging decisions are guided by specific blue-to-amber ratios of light. The color specificity of color-dependent foraging varies notably among wild strains, which indicates that color discrimination is ecologically important. We identified two evolutionarily conserved cellular stress response genes required for opsin-independent, color-dependent foraging by , and we speculate that cellular stress response pathways can mediate spectral discrimination by photosensitive cells and organisms-even by those lacking opsins.