Figure 6.

FlincG3 expression in ASE does not affect reporter activity but can increase NaCl seeking behavior. (A) Animals were tested for NaCl cultivation preference (figure based on Kunitomo et al. (2013)). Briefly, animals were placed on cultivation plates with various NaCl concentrations for ∼6 hr before being placed on an assay plate with regions of higher and lower NaCl concentration. (B) Wild-type animals injected with 15 ng/µl ASE FlincG3 (flp-6p::FlincG3) exhibited a preference for higher NaCl concentration while maintaining behavioral plasticity; animals from this line were recorded and analyzed for (C and D). Wild-type animals cultivated at 25 mM NaCl, 50 mM NaCl, and 100 mM NaCl have a chemotaxis index (CI) approaching −1, 0, and 0.75, respectively (first set). The line injected with 15 ng/µl ASE FlincG3 produces two types of progeny: those that do not express the array (nontransgenic siblings) and those that do (transgenic siblings). Nontransgenic siblings behave like wild-type animals (second set; Welch’s t-test, ns). Transgenic animals cultivated at each NaCl concentration exhibit a slight but not significant preference for higher NaCl concentration relative to wild-type animals (third set; Welch’s t-test, ns). Individual dots represent a single trial. Horizontal bars indicate mean; vertical error bars indicate ± SEM. (C) Average fluorescence response (ΔF/F₀ (%)) of FlincG3 in the ASER cell body shown as bolded traces responding to ten 10-sec steps between 50 and 0 mM NaCl (represented at the bottom of the panel). Thinner traces are from individual recordings for each condition. ASER FlincG3 fluorescence in wild-type (N2) animals decreases in response to a 50–0 mM NaCl downstep; this is seen in animals injected with either 7.5 ng/µl (blue traces) or 15 ng/µl (red traces) ASE FlincG3. n = 18 and n = 17 wild-type animals injected with 15 ng/µl ASE FlincG3 and 7.5 ng/µl ASE FlincG3, respectively. The data for the strain injected with 7.5 ng/µl ASE FlincG3 are the same data that were used in Figure 4A as wild type (N2). (D) The response magnitudes of the first 50–0 mM NaCl downstep are not different between wild-type animals injected with 7.5 ng/µl ASE FlincG3 (n = 17; first set, blue) and wild-type animals injected with 15 ng/µl ASE FlincG3 (n = 18; second set, red) (permutation test ns). The data for the strain injected with 7.5 ng/µl ASE FlincG3 are the same as the data used in Figure 4C as wild type, first set, blue. Individual dots are the response magnitudes calculated for each animal. Horizontal bars indicate mean; vertical error bars indicate ± SD. See Materials and Methods for details of statistical analysis.