The neurobiology of sensing respiratory gases for the control of animal behavior

Abstract

Aerobic metabolism is fundamental for almost all animal life. Cellular consumption of oxygen (O₂) and production of carbon dioxide (CO₂) signal metabolic states and physiologic stresses. These respiratory gases are also detected as environmental cues that can signal external food quality and the presence of prey, predators and mates. In both contexts, animal nervous systems are endowed with mechanisms for sensing O₂/CO₂ to trigger appropriate behaviors and maintain homeostasis of internal O₂/CO₂. Although different animal species show different behavioral responses to O₂/CO₂, some underlying molecular mechanisms and pathways that function in the detection of respiratory gases are fundamentally similar and evolutionarily conserved. Studies of Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster have identified roles for cyclic nucleotide signaling and the hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) transcriptional pathway in mediating behavioral responses to respiratory gases. Understanding how simple invertebrate nervous systems detect respiratory gases to control behavior might reveal general principles common to nematodes, insects and vertebrates that function in the molecular sensing of respiratory gases and the neural control of animal behaviors.

Keywords

oxygen / carbon dioxide / C. elegans / Drosophila / respiratory gases / animal behaviors

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Acknowledgments

We thank Nikhil Bhatla for discussion and comments. D.K.M. is supported by a Helen Hay Whitney Foundation postdoctoral fellowship. N. R. is supported by the NIGMS (R01-GM098320), the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation and the Pew Scholars Program.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg