Biology Seminar - Piali Sengupta

Thermosensation is a critical sensory modality for all organisms. C. elegans exhibits the remarkable ability to detect temperature changes of as little as 0.01°C across a 10°C temperature range, and exhibits experience-dependent thermosensory behaviors. Thermosensation in the innocuous temperature range is mediated primarily by the single AFD sensory neuron pair. I will discuss our lab's work on identifying the signal transduction mechanisms and morphological specializations that confer extraordinary thermosensitivity onto AFD. I will also describe recent work describing how encoding of recent temperature experiences in the molecular profile of this single sensory neuron pair is sufficient to drive neuronal and behavioral plasticity.