Scholars@Duke
David M. Tobin

David M. Tobin

Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
david.tobin@duke.edu
Duke Box 3020, Durham, NC 27710
207 Research Drive, 207A Jones Building, Box 3020, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications

Channeling kynurenine.

Journal Article Nat Chem Biol · December 2024 Full text Link to item Cite

The antagonistic transcription factors, EspM and EspN, regulate the ESX-1 secretion system in M. marinum.

Journal Article mBio · April 10, 2024 Bacterial pathogens use protein secretion systems to transport virulence factors and regulate gene expression. Among pathogenic mycobacteria, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium marinum, the ESAT-6 system 1 (ESX-1) secretion is crucial f ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Many Hosts of Mycobacteria 9 (MHM9): A conference report.

Journal Article Tuberculosis (Edinb) · September 2023 The Many Hosts of Mycobacteria (MHM) meeting series brings together basic scientists, clinicians and veterinarians to promote robust discussion and dissemination of recent advances in our knowledge of numerous mycobacterial diseases, including human and bo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Macrophage NFATC2 mediates angiogenic signaling during mycobacterial infection.

Journal Article Cell reports · December 2022 Featured Publication During mycobacterial infections, pathogenic mycobacteria manipulate both host immune and stromal cells to establish and maintain a productive infection. In humans, non-human primates, and zebrafish models of infection, pathogenic mycobacteria produce and m ... Full text Open Access Cite

An ancestral mycobacterial effector promotes dissemination of infection.

Journal Article Cell · November 23, 2022 Featured Publication The human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis typically causes lung disease but can also disseminate to other tissues. We identified a M. tuberculosis (Mtb) outbreak presenting with unusually high rates of extrapulmonary dissemination and bone disease. We ... Full text Link to item Cite

mTOR-regulated mitochondrial metabolism limits mycobacterium-induced cytotoxicity.

Journal Article Cell · September 29, 2022 Necrosis of macrophages in the granuloma, the hallmark immunological structure of tuberculosis, is a major pathogenic event that increases host susceptibility. Through a zebrafish forward genetic screen, we identified the mTOR kinase, a master regulator of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Modelling infectious disease to support human health.

Journal Article Dis Model Mech · August 1, 2022 During the current COVID-19 pandemic, there has been renewed scientific and public focus on understanding the pathogenesis of infectious diseases and investigating vaccines and therapies to combat them. In addition to the tragic toll of severe acute respir ... Full text Link to item Cite

Decoding the tuberculous granuloma.

Journal Article Immunity · May 10, 2022 Featured Publication In this issue of Immunity,Gideon et al. (2022) couple sophisticated single-cell analyses with detailed in vivo measurements of Mycobacterium tuberculosis granulomas to define the cellular and transcriptional properties of a successful host immune response ... Full text Link to item Cite

Inhibition of infection-induced vascular permeability modulates host leukocyte recruitment to Mycobacterium marinum granulomas in zebrafish.

Journal Article Pathog Dis · April 29, 2022 Mycobacterial granuloma formation involves significant stromal remodeling including the growth of leaky, granuloma-associated vasculature. These permeable blood vessels aid mycobacterial growth, as antiangiogenic or vascular normalizing therapies are benef ... Full text Link to item Cite

Consequential drug combinations for tuberculosis treatments.

Journal Article Cell Syst · November 17, 2021 Improved therapies for tuberculosis will require the careful revision of complex, multi-drug regimens. In this issue of Cell Systems, Larkins-Ford et al. integrate extensive dose-response measurements of drug combinations, in vivo animal data, and computat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Erratum: Elevated cerebrospinal fluid cytokine levels in tuberculous meningitis predict survival in response to dexamethasone (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (2021) 118 (e2024852118) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2024852118)

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · October 12, 2021 The authors note that Fig. 3 appeared incorrectly. Specifically, in Fig. 3B, the significance bars did not correctly align with the comparisons indicated. The corrected figure and its legend appear below. The online version has been corrected. ... Full text Cite

A Cluster of Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Tenosynovitis Following Hurricane Relief Efforts.

Journal Article Clin Infect Dis · June 15, 2021 BACKGROUND: Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are a rare cause of infectious tenosynovitis of the upper extremity. Using molecular methods, clinical microbiology laboratories are increasingly reporting identification down to the species level. Improved met ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

A robust and flexible CRISPR/Cas9-based system for neutrophil-specific gene inactivation in zebrafish.

Journal Article J Cell Sci · April 15, 2021 CRISPR/Cas9-based tissue-specific knockout techniques are essential for probing the functions of genes in embryonic development and disease using zebrafish. However, the lack of capacity to perform gene-specific rescue or live imaging in the tissue-specifi ... Full text Link to item Cite

A non-canonical type 2 immune response coordinates tuberculous granuloma formation and epithelialization.

Journal Article Cell · April 1, 2021 Featured Publication The central pathogen-immune interface in tuberculosis is the granuloma, a complex host immune structure that dictates infection trajectory and physiology. Granuloma macrophages undergo a dramatic transition in which entire epithelial modules are induced an ... Full text Link to item Cite

Elevated cerebrospinal fluid cytokine levels in tuberculous meningitis predict survival in response to dexamethasone.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · March 9, 2021 Adjunctive treatment with antiinflammatory corticosteroids like dexamethasone increases survival in tuberculosis meningitis. Dexamethasone responsiveness associates with a C/T variant in Leukotriene A4 Hydrolase (LTA4H), which regulates expression of the p ... Full text Link to item Cite

Visualizing the dynamics of tuberculosis pathology using molecular imaging.

Journal Article J Clin Invest · March 1, 2021 Nearly 140 years after Robert Koch discovered Mycobacterium tuberculosis, tuberculosis (TB) remains a global threat and a deadly human pathogen. M. tuberculosis is notable for complex host-pathogen interactions that lead to poorly understood disease states ... Full text Link to item Cite

Inhibition of infection-induced vascular permeability modulates host leukocyte recruitment to Mycobacterium marinum granulomas in zebrafish

Journal Article · 2021 Mycobacterial granuloma formation involves significant stromal remodeling and the growth of leaky, granuloma-associated vasculature. These permeable blood vessels aid mycobacterial growth, as anti-angiogenic or vascular normalizing therapies are beneficial ... Full text Cite

Macrophage ACKRobatics: An atypical Cxcr3 keeps macrophages in check.

Journal Article J Leukoc Biol · February 2020 Discussion on an unusual role for a cxcr3 receptor, in which it antagonizes a paralogous receptor to limit macrophage migration. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Early cell-autonomous accumulation of neutral lipids during infection promotes mycobacterial growth.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2020 Lipids represent an important source of nutrition for infecting mycobacteria, accumulating within the necrotic core of granulomas and present in foamy macrophages associated with mycobacterial infection. In order to better understand the timing, process an ... Full text Link to item Cite

A CRISPR/Cas9 vector system for neutrophil-specific gene disruption in zebrafish

Journal Article · 2020 Tissue-specific knockout techniques are widely applied in biological studies to probe the tissue-specific roles of specific genes in physiology, development, and disease. CRISPR/Cas9 is a widely used technology to perform fast and efficient genome editing ... Full text Cite

Elevated cerebrospinal fluid cytokine levels in tuberculous meningitis predict survival in response to dexamethasone

Journal Article · 2020 ABSTRACT Adjunctive treatment with anti-inflammatory corticosteroids like dexamethasone increases survival in tuberculosis meningitis. Dexamethasone responsiveness associates with a C/T variant in Leukotriene A4 Hydrolase (LTA4H ), which regulates ... Full text Cite

Epithelial delamination is protective during pharmaceutical-induced enteropathy.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · August 20, 2019 Intestinal epithelial cell (IEC) shedding is a fundamental response to intestinal damage, yet underlying mechanisms and functions have been difficult to define. Here we model chronic intestinal damage in zebrafish larvae using the nonsteroidal antiinflamma ... Full text Link to item Cite

Thrombocyte Inhibition Restores Protective Immunity to Mycobacterial Infection in Zebrafish.

Journal Article J Infect Dis · July 2, 2019 BACKGROUND: Infection-induced thrombocytosis is a clinically important complication of tuberculosis infection. Recent studies have highlighted the utility of aspirin as a host-directed therapy modulating the inflammatory response to infection but have not ... Full text Link to item Cite

Spotlight on zebrafish: the next wave of translational research.

Journal Article Dis Model Mech · March 7, 2019 Five years after the launch of the Disease Models & Mechanisms (DMM) Special Issue on zebrafish as a disease model, the field has progressed significantly. Zebrafish have been used to precisely model human genetic variants, to unpick the mechanisms of meta ... Full text Link to item Cite

Intestinal Serum amyloid A suppresses systemic neutrophil activation and bactericidal activity in response to microbiota colonization.

Journal Article PLoS Pathog · March 2019 The intestinal microbiota influences the development and function of myeloid lineages such as neutrophils, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are unresolved. Using gnotobiotic zebrafish, we identified the immune effector Serum amyloid A (Saa) as one o ... Full text Link to item Cite

Potentiation of P2RX7 as a host-directed strategy for control of mycobacterial infection.

Journal Article Elife · January 29, 2019 Featured Publication Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the leading worldwide cause of death due to a single infectious agent. Existing anti-tuberculous therapies require long treatments and are complicated by multi-drug-resistant strains. Host-directed therapies have been proposed ... Full text Link to item Cite

Mycobacterial Evolution Intersects With Host Tolerance.

Journal Article Front Immunol · 2019 Over the past 200 years, tuberculosis (TB) has caused more deaths than any other infectious disease, likely infecting more people than it has at any other time in human history. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the etiologic agent of TB, is an obligate hu ... Full text Link to item Cite

An explant technique for high-resolution imaging and manipulation of mycobacterial granulomas.

Journal Article Nat Methods · December 2018 Featured Publication A central and critical structure in tuberculosis, the mycobacterial granuloma consists of highly organized immune cells, including macrophages that drive granuloma formation through a characteristic epithelioid transformation. Difficulties in imaging withi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cyclopropane Modification of Trehalose Dimycolate Drives Granuloma Angiogenesis and Mycobacterial Growth through Vegf Signaling.

Journal Article Cell Host Microbe · October 10, 2018 Featured Publication Mycobacterial infection leads to the formation of characteristic immune aggregates called granulomas, a process accompanied by dramatic remodeling of the host vasculature. As granuloma angiogenesis favors the infecting mycobacteria, it may be actively prom ... Full text Link to item Cite

Intestinal Serum Amyloid A suppresses systemic neutrophil activation and bactericidal activity in response to microbiota colonization

Journal Article · October 4, 2018 Abstract The intestinal microbiota influence diverse aspects of host physiology, including the development and function of myeloid lineages. Numerous host and microbial factors are known to poise neutrophils and other granulocytes for response to pathogens ... Full text Cite

Tuberculous meningitis: a roadmap for advancing basic and translational research.

Journal Article Nat Immunol · June 2018 Featured Publication Tuberculous meningitis is a serious, life-threatening disease affecting vulnerable populations, including HIV-infected individuals and young children. The US National Institutes of Health convened a workshop to identify knowledge gaps in the molecular and ... Full text Link to item Cite

Annotated Genome Sequences of 16 Lineage 4 Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strains from Guatemala.

Journal Article Genome Announc · February 15, 2018 Whole-genome sequencing has resulted in new insights into the phylogeography of Mycobacterium tuberculosis However, only limited genomic data are available from M. tuberculosis strains in Guatemala. Here we report 16 complete genomes of clinical strains be ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Thrombocyte inhibition restores protective immunity to mycobacterial infection in zebrafish

Journal Article · 2018 Infection-induced thrombocytosis is a clinically important complication of tuberculosis (TB). Recent studies have separately highlighted a correlation of platelet activation with TB severity and utility of aspirin as a host-directed therapy for TB that mod ... Full text Cite

Tuberculous meningitis.

Journal Article Nat Rev Neurol · October 2017 Tuberculosis remains a global health problem, with an estimated 10.4 million cases and 1.8 million deaths resulting from the disease in 2015. The most lethal and disabling form of tuberculosis is tuberculous meningitis (TBM), for which more than 100,000 ne ... Full text Link to item Cite

Human genetic variation in VAC14 regulates Salmonella invasion and typhoid fever through modulation of cholesterol.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · September 12, 2017 Risk, severity, and outcome of infection depend on the interplay of pathogen virulence and host susceptibility. Systematic identification of genetic susceptibility to infection is being undertaken through genome-wide association studies, but how to expedit ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Infection-Induced Vascular Permeability Aids Mycobacterial Growth.

Journal Article J Infect Dis · March 1, 2017 Pathogenic mycobacteria trigger formation of organized granulomas. As granulomas mature, they induce angiogenesis and vascular permeability. Here, in a striking parallel to tumor pro-angiogenic signaling, we identify angiopoietin-2 (ANG-2) induction as an ... Full text Link to item Cite

Infectious disease models in zebrafish.

Journal Article Methods Cell Biol · 2017 In recent years, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) has developed as an important alternative to mammalian models for the study of hostpathogen interactions. Because they lack a functional adaptive immune response during the first 4-6weeks of development, zebrafi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Macrophage Epithelial Reprogramming Underlies Mycobacterial Granuloma Formation and Promotes Infection.

Journal Article Immunity · October 18, 2016 Featured Publication Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in humans triggers formation of granulomas, which are tightly organized immune cell aggregates that are the central structure of tuberculosis. Infected and uninfected macrophages interdigitate, assuming an altered, flat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Macrophage form, function, and phenotype in mycobacterial infection: lessons from tuberculosis and other diseases.

Journal Article Pathog Dis · October 2016 Macrophages play a central role in mycobacterial pathogenesis. Recent work has highlighted the importance of diverse macrophage types and phenotypes that depend on local environment and developmental origins. In this review, we highlight how distinct macro ... Full text Link to item Cite

GeneXpert MTB/Rif to Diagnose Tuberculous Meningitis: Perhaps the First Test but not the Last.

Conference Clin Infect Dis · May 1, 2016 Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is the most severe form of tuberculous with substantial mortality. In May 2015, 54 researchers from 10 countries met in Da Lat, Vietnam, to discuss advances in TBM. Among the attendees were researchers involved in pivotal studi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Lysosomal Disorders Drive Susceptibility to Tuberculosis by Compromising Macrophage Migration.

Journal Article Cell · March 24, 2016 Featured Publication A zebrafish genetic screen for determinants of susceptibility to Mycobacterium marinum identified a hypersusceptible mutant deficient in lysosomal cysteine cathepsins that manifests hallmarks of human lysosomal storage diseases. Under homeostatic condition ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Live Imaging of Host-Pathogen Interactions in Zebrafish Larvae.

Journal Article Methods Mol Biol · 2016 Zebrafish larvae are a powerful platform for studying the innate immune response to infection. The small size and optical transparency of larval zebrafish allow for multiple subject, multidimensional, and longitudinal imaging experiments. This chapter desc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Direct In Vivo Manipulation and Imaging of Calcium Transients in Neutrophils Identify a Critical Role for Leading-Edge Calcium Flux.

Journal Article Cell Rep · December 15, 2015 Featured Publication Calcium signaling has long been associated with key events of immunity, including chemotaxis, phagocytosis, and activation. However, imaging and manipulation of calcium flux in motile immune cells in live animals remain challenging. Using light-sheet micro ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Whole genome sequencing identifies circulating Beijing-lineage Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains in Guatemala and an associated urban outbreak.

Journal Article Tuberculosis (Edinb) · December 2015 Featured Publication Limited data are available regarding the molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains circulating in Guatemala. Beijing-lineage Mtb strains have gained prevalence worldwide and are associated with increased virulence and drug resistan ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

CLARITY and PACT-based imaging of adult zebrafish and mouse for whole-animal analysis of infections.

Journal Article Dis Model Mech · December 2015 Featured Publication Visualization of infection and the associated host response has been challenging in adult vertebrates. Owing to their transparency, zebrafish larvae have been used to directly observe infection in vivo; however, such larvae have not yet developed a functio ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Live Imaging of Host-Parasite Interactions in a Zebrafish Infection Model Reveals Cryptococcal Determinants of Virulence and Central Nervous System Invasion.

Journal Article mBio · September 29, 2015 Featured Publication UNLABELLED: The human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans is capable of infecting a broad range of hosts, from invertebrates like amoebas and nematodes to standard vertebrate models such as mice and rabbits. Here we have taken advantage of a zebrafish ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

CPAG: software for leveraging pleiotropy in GWAS to reveal similarity between human traits links plasma fatty acids and intestinal inflammation.

Journal Article Genome Biol · September 15, 2015 Meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have demonstrated that the same genetic variants can be associated with multiple diseases and other complex traits. We present software called CPAG (Cross-Phenotype Analysis of GWAS) to look for simil ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Stable Expression of Lentiviral Antigens by Quality-Controlled Recombinant Mycobacterium bovis BCG Vectors.

Journal Article Clin Vaccine Immunol · July 2015 The well-established safety profile of the tuberculosis vaccine strain, Mycobacterium bovis bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), makes it an attractive vehicle for heterologous expression of antigens from clinically relevant pathogens. However, successful genera ... Full text Link to item Cite

Host-Directed Therapies for Tuberculosis.

Journal Article Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med · May 18, 2015 Host-directed therapies are a relatively new and promising approach to treatment of tuberculosis. Modulation of specific host immune pathways, including those that impact inflammation and immunopathology, can limit mycobacterial infection and pathology, bo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Epigenetic control of intestinal barrier function and inflammation in zebrafish.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · March 3, 2015 The intestinal epithelium forms a barrier protecting the organism from microbes and other proinflammatory stimuli. The integrity of this barrier and the proper response to infection requires precise regulation of powerful immune homing signals such as tumo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Adventures within the speckled band: heterogeneity, angiogenesis, and balanced inflammation in the tuberculous granuloma.

Journal Article Immunol Rev · March 2015 Recent work in a variety of animal models, including mice, zebrafish, and macaques, as well as in humans, has led to a reassessment of several tenets of mycobacterial infection. In this review, we describe new findings about the composition and dynamics of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Interception of host angiogenic signalling limits mycobacterial growth.

Journal Article Nature · January 29, 2015 Featured Publication Pathogenic mycobacteria induce the formation of complex cellular aggregates called granulomas that are the hallmark of tuberculosis. Here we examine the development and consequences of vascularization of the tuberculous granuloma in the zebrafish-Mycobacte ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Interception of host angiogenic signalling limits mycobacterial growth

Journal Article Nature · January 29, 2015 Featured Publication Pathogenic mycobacteria induce the formation of complex cellular aggregates called granulomas that are the hallmark of tuberculosis. Here we examine the development and consequences of vascularization of the tuberculous granuloma in the zebrafish-Mycobacte ... Full text Cite

The Macrophage-Specific Promoter mfap4 Allows Live, Long-Term Analysis of Macrophage Behavior during Mycobacterial Infection in Zebrafish.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2015 Transgenic labeling of innate immune cell lineages within the larval zebrafish allows for real-time, in vivo analyses of microbial pathogenesis within a vertebrate host. To date, labeling of zebrafish macrophages has been relatively limited, with the most ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Fit for consumption: zebrafish as a model for tuberculosis.

Journal Article Dis Model Mech · July 2014 Despite efforts to generate new vaccines and antibiotics for tuberculosis, the disease remains a public health problem worldwide. The zebrafish Danio rerio has emerged as a useful model to investigate mycobacterial pathogenesis and treatment. Infection of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Detection of autofluorescent Mycobacterium chelonae in living zebrafish.

Journal Article Zebrafish · February 2014 Mycobacterium chelonae is widespread in aquatic environments and can cause mycobacteriosis with low virulence in zebrafish. The risk of infection in zebrafish is exacerbated in closed-recirculating aquatic systems where rapidly growing mycobacteria can liv ... Full text Link to item Cite

Mycobacteria manipulate macrophage recruitment through coordinated use of membrane lipids.

Journal Article Nature · January 9, 2014 Featured Publication The evolutionary survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the cause of human tuberculosis, depends on its ability to invade the host, replicate, and transmit infection. At its initial peripheral infection site in the distal lung airways, M. tuberculosis inf ... Full text Link to item Cite

Mycobacteria manipulate macrophage recruitment through coordinated use of membrane lipids

Journal Article Nature · 2014 Featured Publication The evolutionary survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the cause of human tuberculosis, depends on its ability to invade the host, replicate, and transmit infection. At its initial peripheral infection site in the distal lung airways, M. tuberculosis inf ... Full text Cite

Search for microRNAs expressed by intracellular bacterial pathogens in infected mammalian cells.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2014 MicroRNAs are expressed by all multicellular organisms and play a critical role as post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression. Moreover, different microRNA species are known to influence the progression of a range of different diseases, including c ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

TB: the Yin and Yang of lipid mediators.

Journal Article Curr Opin Pharmacol · August 2013 There is a growing appreciation of the diverse roles that lipid mediators play in modulating inflammatory responses during infection. In the case of tuberculosis, virulent mycobacteria induce host production of anti-inflammatory mediators, including lipoxi ... Full text Link to item Cite

An enzyme that inactivates the inflammatory mediator leukotriene b4 restricts mycobacterial infection.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2013 While tuberculosis susceptibility has historically been ascribed to failed inflammation, it is now known that an excess of leukotriene A4 hydrolase (LTA4H), which catalyzes the final step in leukotriene B4 (LTB4) synthesis, produces a hyperinflammatory sta ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Host genotype-specific therapies can optimize the inflammatory response to mycobacterial infections.

Journal Article Cell · February 3, 2012 Featured Publication Susceptibility to tuberculosis is historically ascribed to an inadequate immune response that fails to control infecting mycobacteria. In zebrafish, we find that susceptibility to Mycobacterium marinum can result from either inadequate or excessive acute i ... Full text Link to item Cite

The lta4h locus modulates susceptibility to mycobacterial infection in zebrafish and humans.

Journal Article Cell · March 5, 2010 Exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis produces varied early outcomes, ranging from resistance to infection to progressive disease. Here we report results from a forward genetic screen in zebrafish larvae that identify multiple mutant classes with distinct ... Full text Link to item Cite

Comparative pathogenesis of Mycobacterium marinum and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Journal Article Cell Microbiol · May 2008 A thorough understanding of Mycobacterium tuberculosis pathogenesis in humans has been elusive in part because of imperfect surrogate laboratory hosts, each with its own idiosyncrasies. Mycobacterium marinum is the closest genetic relative of the M. tuberc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Invertebrate nociception: behaviors, neurons and molecules.

Journal Article J Neurobiol · October 2004 Genetic analysis of nociceptive behaviors in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has led to the discovery of conserved sensory transduction channels and signaling molecules. These are embedded in neurons and circui ... Full text Link to item Cite

Mammalian TRPV4 (VR-OAC) directs behavioral responses to osmotic and mechanical stimuli in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · November 25, 2003 All animals detect osmotic and mechanical stimuli, but the molecular basis for these responses is incompletely understood. The vertebrate transient receptor potential channel vanilloid subfamily 4 (TRPV4) (VR-OAC) cation channel has been suggested to be an ... Full text Link to item Cite

Social feeding in Caenorhabditis elegans is induced by neurons that detect aversive stimuli.

Journal Article Nature · October 31, 2002 Natural Caenorhabditis elegans isolates exhibit either social or solitary feeding on bacteria. We show here that social feeding is induced by nociceptive neurons that detect adverse or stressful conditions. Ablation of the nociceptive neurons ASH and ADL t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Combinatorial expression of TRPV channel proteins defines their sensory functions and subcellular localization in C. elegans neurons.

Journal Article Neuron · July 18, 2002 C. elegans OSM-9 is a TRPV channel protein involved in sensory transduction and adaptation. Here, we show that distinct sensory functions arise from different combinations of OSM-9 and related OCR TRPV proteins. Both OSM-9 and OCR-2 are essential for sever ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neuronal cell shape and neurite initiation are regulated by the Ndr kinase SAX-1, a member of the Orb6/COT-1/warts serine/threonine kinase family.

Journal Article Mol Biol Cell · September 2000 The Caenorhabditis elegans sax-1 gene regulates several aspects of neuronal cell shape. sax-1 mutants have expanded cell bodies and ectopic neurites in many classes of neurons, suggesting that SAX-1 functions to restrict cell and neurite growth. The ectopi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Olfactory recognition and discrimination in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Journal Article Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol · 1996 Link to item Cite