A new putative cyclic nucleotide-gated channel gene, cng-3, is critical for thermotolerance in Caenorhabditis elegans

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Abstract

Cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels encoded by tax-4 and tax-2 genes are required for chemo- and thermo-sensation in Caenorhabditis elegans. Here we report the identification and the characterization of cng-3, a new CNG channel gene, found in C. elegans. CNG-3 contains six putative transmembrane regions and a cyclic nucleotide-binding domain that show high homology with CNG channels of higher animals as well as TAX-4. The expression of cng-3 is detected from early stages in worm development and restricted in five sensory neurons of amphid including AFD neuron. While a cng-3 null mutant displays normal chemotaxis to volatile odorants, the mutant worms exhibit impaired thermal tolerance. These results indicate that CNG-3, a new member of CNG channel subunits, may play a critical role in sensation or response of thermal stress in C. elegans.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

Caenorhabditis elegans strains and maintenance. Four C. elegans strains were utilized in this study. Bristol N2 and tax-4(p768) strains were obtained from the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center (CGC) at the University of Minnesota, USA. The cng-3(jh113) strain was isolated by reverse genetics method in our laboratory and tax-4(p678); cng-3(jh113) strain was made by a cross between tax-4(p678) and cng-3(jh113) strains. Worm breeding and handling were conducted as described [16].

cDNA cloning and

Characterization of a putative gene encoding a cyclic nucleotide-gated channel in C. elegans

We have identified a new gene, F38E11.12, bearing high homology to the family of cyclic nucleotide-gated channels (Fig. 1A). Complementary DNA (cDNA) encoded by this gene was isolated and named as the cng-3. The cng-3 cDNA contains an open reading-frame of 2241 bp and is predicted to encode a protein of 626 amino acids (Fig. 1B). Hydrophobicity analysis of CNG-3 protein revealed six hydrophobic peaks that could correspond to six membrane-spanning regions (S1–S6). The CNG-3 protein shares 16%

Acknowledgments

We thank A. Coulson for cosmids, the CGC for strains, and K. Cunningham and A. Fire for expression vectors and a cDNA library. We are especially grateful to K. Kim for identification of expression patterns of cng-3; B.-J. Park for technical assistance and helpful advice. This work was supported by the grants from the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology through Institute of Science and Technology for Sustainability at GIST and from Korean Systems Biology Research M1-0309-00-006 and

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    Abbreviations: CNG channel, cyclic nucleotide-gated channel; GFP, green fluorescent protein; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; CNBD, cyclic nucleotide-binding domain.

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