The C. elegans gustatory receptor homolog LITE-1 is a chemoreceptor required for diacetyl avoidance.

Authors

Alan Koh, Eduard Bokman, Alexey Gavrikov, Javier Rodriguez, Changchun Chen, Alon Zaslaver, André Ex Brown

Published in

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology. Jul 21, 2026. Epub Jul 21, 2026.

Abstract

The nematode C. elegans does not have eyes but can respond to aversive UV and blue light stimulation and even distinguish colours. The gustatory receptor homolog LITE-1 was identified in forward genetic screens for worms that failed to respond to blue light stimulation. When LITE-1 is expressed in body-wall muscles, it causes contraction in response to blue light suggesting that LITE-1 is both necessary and sufficient for blue light response. Here we show that in addition to light avoidance, LITE-1 is also required for worms' avoidance of high concentrations of diacetyl, an odorant that is attractive at low concentrations. Like blue light, diacetyl causes muscle contraction in transgenic worms engineered to express LITE-1 in body-wall muscles. These data are consistent with a direct chemoreceptor function for LITE-1 which would make it a multimodal sensor of aversive stimuli.

PMID:
42539119
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 01 Aug 2026.

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