AUTHOR=Fernandes De Abreu Diana Andrea , Salinas-Giegé Thalia , Drouard Laurence , Remy Jean-Jacques 

TITLE=Alanine tRNAs Translate Environment Into Behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cell-and-developmental-biology/articles/10.3389/fcell.2020.571359

DOI=10.3389/fcell.2020.571359

ISSN=2296-634X

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Caenorhabditis elegans</italic> nematodes produce and maintain imprints of attractive chemosensory cues to which they are exposed early in life. Early odor-exposure increases adult chemo-attraction to the same cues. Imprinting is transiently or stably inherited, depending on the number of exposed generations. We show here that the Alanine tRNA (UGC) plays a central role in regulating <italic>C. elegans</italic> chemo-attraction. Naive worms fed on tRNA<sup>Ala</sup> (UGC) purified from odor-experienced worms, acquire odor-specific imprints. Chemo-attractive responses require the tRNA-modifying Elongator complex sub-units 1 (<italic>elpc-1</italic>) and 3 (<italic>elpc-3</italic>) genes. <italic>elpc-3</italic> deletions impair chemo-attraction, which is fully restored by wild-type tRNA<sup>Ala</sup> (UGC) feeding. A stably inherited decrease of odor-specific responses ensues from early odor-exposition of <italic>elpc-1</italic> deletion mutants. tRNA<sup>Ala</sup> (UGC) may adopt various chemical forms to mediate the cross-talk between innately-programmed and environment-directed chemo-attractive behavior.</p>