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First published online August 18, 2003
doi: 10.1242/10.1242/dev.00670

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Modulation of EGF receptor-mediated vulva development by the heterotrimeric G-protein Gq and excitable cells in C. elegans

Nadeem Moghal^1,*,, L. Rene Garcia^2,*,, Liakot A. Khan^3,, Kouichi Iwasaki³ and Paul W. Sternberg¹

¹ Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
² Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, 3258 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, USA
³ Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology, Neuroscience Research Institute AIST, Tsukuba, 305-8566, Japan

Authors for correspondence (e-mail: nmoghal{at}caltech.edu and rgarcia{at}mail.bio.tamu.edu)

Accepted 12 June 2003

The extent to which excitable cells and behavior modulate animal development has not been examined in detail. Here, we demonstrate the existence of a novel pathway for promoting vulval fates in C. elegans that involves activation of the heterotrimeric Gq protein, EGL-30. EGL-30 acts with muscle-expressed EGL-19 L-type voltage-gated calcium channels to promote vulva development, and acts downstream or parallel to LET-60 (RAS). This pathway is not essential for vulval induction on standard Petri plates, but can be stimulated by expression of activated EGL-30 in neurons, or by an EGL-30-dependent change in behavior that occurs in a liquid environment. Our results indicate that excitable cells and animal behavior can provide modulatory inputs into the effects of growth factor signaling on cell fates, and suggest that communication between these cell populations is important for normal development to occur under certain environmental conditions.

Key words: EGF, Muscle, Neurons, Behavior, Vulva, G protein

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