@article {Rankin4337, author = {Catharine H. Rankin and Stephen R. Wicks}, title = {Mutations of the Caenorhabditis elegansBrain-Specific Inorganic Phosphate Transporter eat-4Affect Habituation of the Tap{\textendash}Withdrawal Response without Affecting the Response Itself}, volume = {20}, number = {11}, pages = {4337--4344}, year = {2000}, doi = {10.1523/JNEUROSCI.20-11-04337.2000}, publisher = {Society for Neuroscience}, abstract = {The studies reported here were designed to investigate the role of the mutation eat-4 in the response to tap and in habituation in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. InC. elegans eat-4 has been found to affect a number of glutamatergic pathways. It has been hypothesized to positively regulate glutaminase activity and therefore glutamatergic neurotransmission. In the eat-4(ky5) loss-of-function worms, there is presumably insufficient glutamate available for sustained transmission. In the experiments reported here eat-4 worms showed no differences from wild-type in the magnitude of response to a single tap, indicating that the neural circuit underlying the response was intact and functional in the mutant worms. However, wheneat-4 worms were given repeated taps the resulting habituation was different from that seen in wild-type worms:eat-4 worms habituate more rapidly and recover more slowly than wild-type worms at all interstimulus intervals tested. In addition, eat-4 worms do not show dishabituation. The same transgene rescues pharyngeal activity defects and both the habituation and dishabituation deficits seen in theeat-4 worms. Our results suggest that neurotransmitter regulation plays a role in habituation and may play a role in dishabituation.}, issn = {0270-6474}, URL = {https://www.jneurosci.org/content/20/11/4337}, eprint = {https://www.jneurosci.org/content/20/11/4337.full.pdf}, journal = {Journal of Neuroscience} }