Figure 1. Sexual conditioning of salt chemotaxis behavior in the male.

(A) Schematic of the assay for single worms in starvation-dependent plasticity of chemotaxis. Each worm was separately conditioned in the absence (1) or presence (2) of NaCl and tested for salt chemotaxis. Representative traces of (1) attraction to and (2) repulsion from the salt-concentration peak are shown. (B) Plasticity of salt chemotaxis in hermaphrodites (herm) and males. Single animals were subjected to starvation conditioning in the presence (NaCl-conditioned) or absence (mock-conditioned) of salt. No significant difference between males and females was observed in this paradigm. (C) Procedures to examine inter-sexual and inter-individual effects during salt/starvation conditioning of males. (D) Males are sexually conditioned to be attracted to salt after conditioning with hermaphrodites (herm), and this effect is not observed when conditioned with males. **, P<0.001; *, P<0.01; n.s., not significant. Error bars represent SEM. n = 55–80 animals for each condition.