Mitochondria and odor memory
Most organisms rely on the sense of smell to understand what is happening around them. Is there any food around? Are there any predators nearby? Any potential mates? This requires the animal to wade through the myriad odors in their environment and discern which is meaningful and which is not. How is this achieved?
One guide is the worm's previous experience with the odor: when worms are exposed to some odors in the absence of food, what was once an innately attractive odor is now deemed meaningless or even repulsive. With repeated training, this newly learned information can be retained for several hours - an odor-associated memory.
We find that mitochondria - the organelle that produces energy, the "powerhouse of the cell" - are involved in acquiring and retaining these types of memory. By taking advantage of the simple nervous system and the many genetic and molecular tools available in C. elegans, we are looking into the mechanism of how this works, with the hope that something similar could be at play in humans.
Role of fat metabolism in fleeing from pathogens
Fleeing from danger or harm is a basic instinct conserved in most organisms. This requires the animal to sense danger in appropriate situations and move away. We found that mutant worms defective in fat metabolism are defective for pathogen avoidance. We are studying how regulating fat affects neuron function that underlies this evolutionarily conserved behavior.
Unsaturated fats and overcoming toxins
Does the Mediterranean diet help worms overcome toxins?
We previously found that the monounsaturated fatty acid oleic acid alleviates toxicity of a purple bacterial metabolite called violacein. We are trying to identify genes that are involved, with the goal to see if the same players are necessary for oleic acid's other known benefits.