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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Jul 27.
Published in final edited form as: Neuron. 2011 Jan 27;69(2):194–202. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.12.018

Figure 1. C. elegans senses increases and decreases in oxygen.

Figure 1

A. The URX and BAG neurons respond to O2.

B. Behavioral response to decreases and increases in O2, measured as a slowing behavior. Changing the oxygen concentration to either higher or lower values causes a temporary slowing.

C. URX neurons sense O2 increases with the guanylate cyclases GCY35 and GCY36, causing an increase in cGMP and opening of cGMP-gated channels (TAX2/4).

D. BAG neurons sense O2 decreases with GCY31 and GCY33, increasing cGMP and opening TAX2/4.

E. Animals lacking URX neurons respond to decreases but do not respond to increases.

F. Animals lacking BAG neurons do not respond to decreases but still detect increases.

Graphs in BEF are schematics based on data in Zimmer et al, 2009.