Journal article
Ascaroside signaling is widely conserved among nematodes
A Choe, SH Von Reuss, D Kogan, RB Gasser, EG Platzer, FC Schroeder, PW Sternberg
Current Biology | CELL PRESS | Published : 2012
Abstract
Background: Nematodes are among the most successful animals on earth and include important human pathogens, yet little is known about nematode pheromone systems. A group of small molecules called ascarosides has been found to mediate mate finding, aggregation, and developmental diapause in Caenorhabditis elegans, but it is unknown whether ascaroside signaling exists outside of the genus Caenorhabditis. Results: To determine whether ascarosides are used as signaling molecules by other nematode species, we performed a mass spectrometry-based screen for ascarosides in secretions from a variety of both free-living and parasitic (plant, insect, and animal) nematodes. We found that most of the spe..
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Awarded by National Institutes of Health
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center, Marie-Anne Felix, Antoon Ploeg, S. Patricia Stock, J. Scott Cameron, Teresa Mullens, Jennifer Becker, Scott Edwards, John Darsow, Adler R. Dillman, and Hillel T. Schwartz for their contribution of nematodes to this study. We further thank Adler R. Dillman for assembling a phylogenetic tree for the species used in this study. We thank Moises Garcia for his help in manufacturing the copper chambers used in the attraction assay. We thank Arthur S. Edison, Adler R. Dillman, Hillel T. Schwartz, Jagan Srinivasan, David A. Prober, and Bruce A. Hay for their valuable suggestions. This work was supported in part by a National Institutes of Health grant (GM088290 to F.C.S. and GM085285 to A.S. Edison, F.C.S., and P.W.S.), and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, with which P.W.S. is an Investigator.