ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
Magnetosensitive neurons mediate geomagnetic orientation in Caenorhabditis elegans
Andrés Vidal-Gadea, Kristi Ward, Celia Beron, Navid Ghorashian, Sertan Gokce, Joshua Russell, Nicholas Truong, Adhishri Parikh, Otilia Gadea, Adela Ben-Yakar, Jonathan Pierce-ShimomuraCorresponding Author
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.07493
Published June 17, 2015
Cite as eLife 2015;10.7554/eLife.07493
Inside the head of the worm C. elegans, the TV antenna-like structure at the tip of the AFD neuron (green) is the first identified sensor for Earth's magnetic field. Credit: Andres Vidal-Gadea.
ABSTRACT
Many organisms spanning from bacteria to mammals orient to the earth's magnetic field. For a few animals, central neurons responsive to earth-strength magnetic fields have been identified; however, magnetosensory neurons have yet to be identified in any animal. We show that the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans orients to the earth's magnetic field during vertical burrowing migrations. Well-fed worms migrated up, while starved worms migrated down. Populations isolated from around the world, migrated at angles to the magnetic vector that would optimize vertical translation in their native soil, with northern- and southern-hemisphere worms displaying opposite migratory preferences. Magnetic orientation and vertical migrations required the TAX-4 cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channel in the AFD sensory neuron pair. Calcium imaging showed that these neurons respond to magnetic fields even without synaptic input. C. elegans may have adapted magnetic orientation to simplify their vertical burrowing migration by reducing the orientation task from three dimensions to one.
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