Document Type

Article

Original Publication Date

2015

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Elife

DOI of Original Publication

10.7554/eLife.06683

Comments

Originally published at http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06683

Date of Submission

May 2016

Abstract

Neuropeptides are essential for the regulation of appetite. Here we show that neuropeptides could regulate feeding in mutants that lack neurotransmission from the motor neurons that stimulate feeding muscles. We identified nlp-24 by an RNAi screen of 115 neuropeptide genes, testing whether they affected growth. NLP-24 peptides have a conserved YGGXX sequence, similar to mammalian opioid neuropeptides. In addition, morphine and naloxone respectively stimulated and inhibited feeding in starved worms, but not in worms lacking NPR-17, which encodes a protein with sequence similarity to opioid receptors. Opioid agonists activated heterologously expressed NPR-17, as did at least one NLP-24 peptide. Worms lacking the ASI neurons, which express npr-17, did not response to naloxone. Thus, we suggest that Caenorhabditis elegans has an endogenous opioid system that acts through NPR-17, and that opioids regulate feeding via ASI neurons. Together, these results suggestC. elegans may be the first genetically tractable invertebrate opioid model.

Rights

Copyright © 2015, Cheong et al This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Is Part Of

VCU Physiology and Biophysics Publications

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