HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: fj.08-110502v1 fj.08-110502v2 fj.08-110502v3 22/9/3247    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Qian, H. Articles by Martin, R. J. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Qian, H. Articles by Martin, R. J.

Levamisole resistance resolved at the single-channel level in Caenorhabditis elegans

Hai Qian^*, Alan P. Robertson^*, Jo Anne Powell-Coffman and Richard J. Martin^*,1

^* Department of Biomedical Sciences and

Department of Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA

¹Correspondence: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA. E-mail: rjmartin{at}iastate.edu

Sydney Brenner promoted Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism, and subsequent investigations pursued resistance to the nicotinic anthelmintic drug levamisole in C. elegans at a genetic level. These studies have advanced our understanding of genes associated with neuromuscular transmission and resistance to the antinematodal drug. In lev-8 and lev-1 mutant C. elegans, levamisole resistance is associated with reductions in levamisole-activated whole muscle cell currents. Although lev-8 and lev-1 are known to code for nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subunits, an explanation for why these currents get smaller is not available. In wild-type adults, nAChRs aggregate at neuromuscular junctions and are not accessible for single-channel recording. Here we describe a use of LEV-10 knockouts, in which aggregation is lost, to make in situ recordings of nAChR channel currents. Our observations provide an explanation for levamisole resistance produced by LEV-8 and LEV-1 mutants at the single-channel level.—Qian, H., Robertson, A. P., Powell-Coffman, J. A., and Martin, R. J. Levamisole resistance resolved at the single-channel level in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Key Words: resistance • LEV-10 • LEV-8 • LEV-1 • nAChR