Behavioral effects of radiation exposure on food NaCl associative learning of Caenorhabditis elegans

Sakashita, Tetsuya; Ikeda, Daisuke*; Hamada, Nobuyuki*; Suzuki, Michiyo*; Tsuji, Toshio*; Wada, Seiichi*; Funayama, Tomoo; Kobayashi, Yasuhiko

Here we report how food-NaCl associative learning is affected by radiation exposure. Wild-type strain was used for all experiments. The animals were irradiated with 0-500 Gy of -rays. Irradiation did not affect chemotaxis toward NaCl, indicating that sensing and signaling in chemo-attraction are maintained in irradiated animals. It has been reported that chemotaxis was decreased by the association of starvation with chemical stimulation of NaCl. Chemotaxis of animals irradiated during the food-starved conditioning with NaCl was decreased than that of non-irradiated control and temporarily stopped. At several hours after irradiation, the decrease of chemotaxis in irradiated animals was observed again. These results suggest that irradiation perturbed and temporarily stopped a part of neuron network related to associative learning, but not that to chemo-attraction to NaCl.