ISSN: 2157-7013
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RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS), Wako, Japan
Asuka Takeishi Faculty at RIKEN Hakubi Research Center. Asuka Takeishi is excited by something incredibly small: a worm that is barely one millimeter long. This nematode, with the species name C. elegans, is the focus of a lot of biomedical research around the world, including in Takeishi’s new lab at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science.
Biology / Neurophysiology/General neuroscience / Animal physiology/Animal behavior / Molecular biology
Review Article
Insulin Signaling Acts Extensively in C. elegans Starvation-Associated Learning and Behavioral Plasticity
Author(s): Kristina N Galatsis and Asuka Takeishi*
Behavioral plasticity is one of the most important strategies by which animals can adapt to transient environmental
changes for their survival. Biological systems must be flexible enough to induce and maintain behavioral plasticity
while still being finely regulated, especially in response to life-threatening situations like starvation. Animals produce
behavior in response to stimuli, which can be altered when starvation is paired with a range of stimuli (associative
learning). Such mechanisms of associative learning have been studied extensively in C. elegans. Use of C. elegans
provides an ideal system to study the neural mechanisms of integration of external cues with internal state for
multiple reasons. First, C. elegans is one of few organisms for which the complete, stereotyped connectome of neurons
is available. This allows researc.. View More»
DOI:
10.35248/2157-7013.21.s5.315