Neurogenetics of nictation, a dispersal strategy in nematodes

Abstract

Nictation is a behaviour in which a nematode stands on its tail and waves its head in three dimensions. This activity promotes dispersal of dauer larvae by allowing them to attach to other organisms and travel on them to a new niche. In this review, we describe our understanding of nictation, including its diversity in nematode species, how it is induced by environmental factors, and neurogenetic factors that regulate nictation. We also highlight the known cellular and signalling factors that affect nictation, for example, IL2 neurons, insulin/IGF-1 signalling, TGF-β signalling, FLP neuropeptides and piRNAs. Elucidation of the mechanism of nictation will contribute to increased understanding of the conserved dispersal strategies in animals.

Keywords:

• Phoresy
• nictation
• dispersal strategy
• neural circuit
• genetics

Acknowledgements

The authors thank members of Lee laboratory for discussion. The authors thank Jun Kim for help with Figure 1.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Samsung Science and Technology Foundation [Project Number SSTF-BA1501-04]. H. Yang, B. Lee and H. Yim were supported by BK21 program.