Effect of Exercise on electrotaxis reponse.

The experiments described herein are the first to demonstrate that the electrotactic response of C. elegans is affected by mutations and environmental conditions that increase cytosolic, mitochondrial, and ER stress.

n mammalian cells, mutations in UCP genes are associated with increased ROS and oxidative stress

Our finding that ucp-4 mutants have defects in electrotaxis suggests that the movement response of animals may be sensitive to ROS levels. Future studies directly measuring oxidative damage following PQ exposure in different genetic backgrounds will be helpful in illuminating the relationship between ROS and electrotaxis.

These data suggest that electrotaxis speed is independent of pathways involved in lifespan maintenance.

The isp-1(qm150) and gas-1(fc21) also both activate the UPRMT73,74, which led us to investigate the role of atfs-1. We found that atfs-1 null mutant and gain-of-function mutant had a slower speed in our assay. Moreover, RNAi knock-down of atfs-1 reduced the speed of isp-1 mutant but not gas-1 mutant animals. Together with known roles of atfs-1 in regulating the expression of mitochondrial and cytosolic heat shock chaperons, these results support the conclusion that multiple stress response signaling affect the electrotaxis behavior of C. elegans.