Molecular biology of thermosensory transduction in C. elegans

•Signal transductions in thermosensory neurons in C. elegans are proposed.•Neural transmission from sensory neurons to interneurons is discussed.•Regulation of thermotaxis behavior by neural circuits is discussed.•Avoidance of noxious temperature is introduced.

As the environmental temperature prominently influences diverse biological aspects of the animals, thermosensation and the subsequent information processing in the nervous system has attracted much attention in biology. Thermotaxis in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is an ideal behavioral paradigm by which to address the molecular mechanism underlying thermosensory transduction. Molecular genetic analysis in combination with other physiological and behavioral studies revealed that sensation of ambient temperature is mediated mainly by cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) signaling in thermosensory neurons. The information of the previously perceived temperature is also stored within the thermosensory neurons, and the consequence of the comparison between the past and the present temperature is conveyed to the downstream interneurons to further regulate the motor-circuits that encode the locomotion.