Fig. 2. Mutations in the TRPV channel proteins do not cause general cell fate transformation of the ADF neurons. (A) Expression of a ocr-2::gfp reporter in a wild-type animal. Both osm-9 and ocr-2 are expressed in ADF (Tobin et al., 2002), but not in other serotonergic neurons. (B-D) Expression of ADF markers in osm-9(yz6) and ocr-2(yz5) mutants. The GFP reporters were examined in wild-type, yz6 and yz5 mutant animals. The expression patterns in wild-type animals have been published: lin-11:gfp (Hobert et al., 1998), and cat-1::gfp and gtpch-1::gfp (Sze et al., 2002). Representative examples of the reporter expression patterns in mutant animals are shown. (B) The expression of lin-11::gfp overlaps with osm-9 and ocr-2 in the ADF and ADL chemosensory neurons. Shown is a yz6 mutant animal strongly expressing lin-11::gfp in ADF and ADL. The position of the cell body and the morphology of the axon and dendrite are normal (indicated by arrowheads). (C) A GFP reporter of the CAT-1/vesicular monoamine transporter is localized to the synapses of the serotonergic neurons and dopaminergic neurons (Sze et al., 2002). Unlike the dramatic reduction of tph-1::gfp expression in the ADF neurons (Fig. 1B, Table 1), cat-1::gfp can be clearly observed in the ADF neurons of yz5 and yz6 mutants. We have repeatedly observed that cat-1::gfp expression in the ADF neurons is relatively weaker in yz5 and yz6 mutants than in wild-type animals, but the differences were not statistically significant. The GFP is distributed as punctate pattern, presumably the fusion CAT-1 is associated with synaptic components. (D) A GFP reporter of a probable GTP-cyclohydrolase I gene gtpch-1 is strongly expressed in serotonergic and dopaminergic neurons (Sze et al., 2002). Shown is a yz6 animal expressing gtpch-1::gfp in ADF and in other serotonergic neurons.