ArticlePLoS genetics2012
C. elegans dopaminergic D2-like receptors delimit recurrent cholinergic-mediated motor programs during a goal-oriented behavior.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- The dopaminergic system ofRoyal Society open science · 2025Review
- Unraveling the hierarchical structure of posture and muscle activity changes during mating ofPNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Effect of altered production and storage of dopamine on development and behavior inFrontiers in toxicology · 2024Article
- Stearoyl-CoA desaturases sustain cholinergic excitation and copulatory robustness in metabolically agingiScience · 2022Article
- Dopamine D1- and D2-like receptors oppositely regulate lifespan via a dietary restriction mechanism in Caenorhabditis elegans.BMC biology · 2022Article
- Microplastics and Their Impact on Reproduction-Can we Learn From theFrontiers in toxicology · 2022Review
- Inferences of glia-mediated control in Caenorhabditis elegans.Journal of neuroscience research · 2021Article
- Increased dopaminergic neurotransmission results in ethanol dependent sedative behaviors in Caenorhabditis elegans.PLoS genetics · 2021Article
- Neuropeptides and Behaviors: How Small Peptides Regulate Nervous System Function and Behavioral Outputs.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2021Review
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- WNT regulates programmed muscle remodeling through PLC-β and calcineurin inDevelopment (Cambridge, England) · 2020Article
- Sexually Dimorphic Regulation of Behavioral States by Dopamine inThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2019Article
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- Neurotransmitter signaling through heterotrimeric G proteins: insights from studies in C. elegans.WormBook : the online review of C. elegans biology · 2018Review
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- CRF-like receptor SEB-3 in sex-common interneurons potentiates stress handling and reproductive drive in C. elegans.Nature communications · 2016Article
- DOP-2 D2-Like Receptor Regulates UNC-7 Innexins to Attenuate Recurrent Sensory Motor Neurons during C. elegans Copulation.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2015Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Caenorhabditis elegans male copulation requires coordinated temporal-spatial execution of different motor outputs. During mating, a cloacal circuit consisting of cholinergic sensory-motor neurons and sex muscles maintains the male's position and executes copulatory spicule thrusts at his mate's vulva. However, distinct signaling mechanisms that delimit these behaviors to their proper context are unclear. We found that dopamine (DA) signaling directs copulatory spicule insertion attempts to the hermaphrodite vulva by dampening spurious stimulus-independent sex muscle contractions. From pharmacology and genetic analyses, DA antagonizes stimulatory ACh signaling via the D2-like receptors, DOP-2 and DOP-3, and Gα(o/i) proteins, GOA-1 and GPA-7. Calcium imaging and optogenetics suggest that heightened DA-expressing ray neuron activities coincide with the cholinergic cloacal ganglia function during spicule insertion attempts. D2-like receptor signaling also attenuates the excitability of additional mating circuits to reduce the duration of mating attempts with unproductive and/or inappropriate partners. This suggests that, during wild-type mating, simultaneous DA-ACh signaling modulates the activity threshold of repetitive motor programs, thus confining the behavior to the proper situational context.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.