Figure 6.
Gustatory plasticity requires Ca2+ signalling. (A) Salt detection was significantly impaired in tax-6, cnb-1 and ncs-1 animals (P<0.01 at 1 and 10 mM NaCl). These mutants still responded to 100 mM NaCl. (B) TRP channel mutants osm-9, ocr-1 and ocr-2 showed defects in plasticity (P<0.001). TRP-channel double mutants showed similar defects to the single mutants (P>0.05). The TRP-channel triple mutant showed a very small additive effect of inactivation of all three subunits (P<0.05, compared to ocr-1 and ocr-2 animals). The TRP channels function in the same genetic pathway as gpc-1, since the response of the gpc-1 osm-9 double did not differ significantly from the single mutants (P>0.05). (C) itr-1, dgk-1, fat-1, fat-3 and fat-4 showed defects in plasticity (P<0.001). FAT-4 functions in the same pathway as OSM-9 and GPC-1, since no significant difference could be detected between double and single mutants (P>0.05). (D) Avoidance of 1 M NaCl was not reduced in fat-1, fat-3, fat-4 or dgk-1 animals.