Alanine tRNAs Translate Environment Into Behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans

• Main Authors: Diana Andrea Fernandes De Abreu, Thalia Salinas-Giegé, Laurence Drouard, Jean-Jacques Remy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-10-01
• Series: Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology
• Subjects: epitranscriptome; tRNA; behavior; plasticity; chemoattraction
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2020.571359/full

Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes produce and maintain imprints of attractive chemosensory cues to which they are exposed early in life. Early odor-exposure increases adult chemo-attraction to the same cues. Imprinting is transiently or stably inherited, depending on the number of exposed generations. We show here that the Alanine tRNA (UGC) plays a central role in regulating C. elegans chemo-attraction. Naive worms fed on tRNAAla (UGC) purified from odor-experienced worms, acquire odor-specific imprints. Chemo-attractive responses require the tRNA-modifying Elongator complex sub-units 1 (elpc-1) and 3 (elpc-3) genes. elpc-3 deletions impair chemo-attraction, which is fully restored by wild-type tRNAAla (UGC) feeding. A stably inherited decrease of odor-specific responses ensues from early odor-exposition of elpc-1 deletion mutants. tRNAAla (UGC) may adopt various chemical forms to mediate the cross-talk between innately-programmed and environment-directed chemo-attractive behavior.