Dietary E. coli promotes age-dependent chemotaxis decline in C. elegans
Abstract
An animal’s ability to sense odors declines during aging, and its olfactory drive is tuned by internal states such as satiety. However, whether internal states modulate an age-dependent decline in odor sensation is unknown. To address this issue, we utilized the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and compared their chemotaxis abilities toward attractive odorants when aged under different dietary conditions. Feeding with the standard laboratory diet, Escherichia coli attenuated the chemotaxis ability toward diacetyl, isoamyl alcohol, and benzaldehyde when aged. On the other hand, feeding with either the lactic acid bacteria Lactobacillus reuteri or food deprivation selectively maintained the chemotaxis ability toward diacetyl. Our results suggest that ingestion of E. coli causes age-dependent chemotaxis decline. The changes in the chemotaxis behavior are attributed to the different expressions of diacetyl receptor odr-10, and the chemotaxis behavior of aged animals under food deprivation is shown to be dependent on daf-16. Our study demonstrates the molecular mechanism of how diet shapes the trajectory of age-dependent decline in chemosensory behaviors.
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Acknowledgement
This work was supported by Megmilk Snow Brand Company, JSPS KAKENHI, Grant Number JP 21K06014, and JST FOREST Program, Grant Number JPMJFR 214V. We thank members of the Nutritional Neuroscience laboratory and the Mori laboratory for their comments on the manuscript and Wei Huang and Pauline Rouillard for technical support. Some strains were provided by the CGC, funded by the NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (P40 OD010440), and by the Mitani laboratory of the National Bioresource Project of Japan.
Contributions
These authors contributed equally: Nadia Suryawinata and Rikuou Yokosawa.
N.S., K.H.C.T., A.L.L., I.M., and K.N. conceived and initiated the project; N.S., R.Y., K.H.C.T., A.L.L., and R.S. performed the experiments; N.S., R.Y., K.H.C.T., A.L.L., and R.S. analyzed the data; R.Y. performed the statistical analyses and prepared graphical illustrations; N.S., K.N. wrote the manuscript; I.M. and K.N. provided the resource. K.N. acquired funding. All authors reviewed the manuscript prior to submission.
Data Availability
All data analyzed for this article and supplementary information are made available in this published article. Source data are provided in this paper.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Files
41598_2024_Article_52272.pdf
Additional details
Identifiers
- PMCID
- PMC10918063
Funding
- Megmilk Snow Brand
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- JP21K06014
- Japan Science and Technology Agency
- JPMJFR 214V
- National Institutes of Health
- P40 OD010440
- RIKEN BioResource Research Center