A Genetic Analysis of C. elegans’ Behavioral Phenotypes Associated with Learning and Memory

Abstract

In its natural environment, C. elegans is exposed to both pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria and must survive by learning how to distinguish between the types as a nutrient source. Our lab previously found that C. elegans can learn to avoid a pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, after relatively short exposure and then pass on this learned avoidance pattern to its offspring for four generations before the behavior must be relearned. The mechanism through which this transgenerational epigenetic inheritance functions and where the components necessary for this process act, are not well understood. NRDE-3 is a siRNA-binding Argonaute protein in the Nuclear RNAi Defective (NRDE) pathway and NRDE-4 is a nuclear RNAi factor that is responsible for chromatin association. This project will determine where and how NRDE-3 and NRDE-4 function in C. elegans to produce a pattern of learned avoidance behavior.