Molecular and cell biological mechanism of olfactory adaptation in Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

Olfactory adaptation is an important physiological function of animals, which can protect their own neurons from overstimulation, and be better to deal with all kinds of stimuli in the surrounding environment. In this article, we discuss the neuronal basis of olfactory adaptation in Caenorhabditis elegans. Up to now, several intracellular regulatory factors have been discovered to be associated with olfactory adaptation in Caenorhabditis elegans, including cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) signaling in the olfactory neurons AWC, OSM-9 in transient receptor potential vanilloid (TRPV) channel, arrestin ARR-1, diglyceride (DAG) pathway in G protein signaling pathways, etc. However, the neural circuits of the olfactory adaptation remains largely unknown. This paper reviews molecular and cell biological mechanism of olfactory adaptation in Caenorhabditis elegans, so as to provide reference for studies on olfactory sensation in advanced animals.