scientificprotocols authored over 7 years ago
Authors: Takaaki Hirotsu, Yu Hayashi, Ryo Iwata, Hirofumi Kunitomo, Eriko Kage-Nakadai, Takeo Kubo, Takeshi Ishihara & Yuichi Iino
C. elegans shows odour adaptation after continuous exposure to an odorant for more than 30 minutes (1). We recently found that odour adaptation is also observed after a short pre-exposure (5 min) to odorants (2). This new type of adaptation requires several interneurons including AIY and RIF, indicating that this behavioural plasticity depends on neural circuits.
The protocol for the short pre-exposure adaptation was modified from the conventional adaptation assay (1). It is important that the plate format used in this protocol (Fig 1a) is different from that used in the conventional adaptation assays (Fig 1b). In our format, spots of odorants, worms and control spots are aligned in close proximity. Therefore, our format is more sensitive to odour-avoidance behaviour after odorant pre-exposure.
Wash buffer
Assay plates (9cm plates)
Odorants
Odorants spotted on assay plates are diluted in EtOH. Odorants used in the pre-exposure steps are diluted in water.
1 M sodium azide
We thank K. Yamada for useful advice and discussion.
Fig. 1: Layout of assay plates used for olfactory plasticity assay.
A trophic role for Wnt-Ror kinase signaling during developmental pruning in Caenorhabditis elegans, Yu Hayashi, Takaaki Hirotsu, Ryo Iwata, Eriko Kage-Nakadai, Hirofumi Kunitomo, Takeshi Ishihara, Yuichi Iino, and Takeo Kubo, Nature Neuroscience 12 (8) 981 - 987 28/06/2009 doi:10.1038/nn.2347
Takaaki Hirotsu, Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Kyushu University/ Deparment of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo
Yu Hayashi, Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo/ Present address: Laboratory for Behavioral Genetics, RIKEN Brain Science Institute
Ryo Iwata, Hirofumi Kunitomo & Yuichi Iino, Deparment of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo
Eriko Kage-Nakadai, Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo/ Present address: Department of Physiology, Tokyo Women's Medical University, School of Medicine
Takeo Kubo, Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo
Takeshi Ishihara, Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Kyushu University
Source: Protocol Exchange (2009) doi:10.1038/nprot.2009.139. Originally published online 3 July 2009.