Humidity sensation, cockroaches, worms, and humans: are common sensory mechanisms for hygrosensation shared across species?
Humidity sensation, cockroaches, worms, and humans: are common sensory mechanisms for hygrosensation shared across species?
Although the ability to detect humidity (i.e., hygrosensation) represents an important sensory attribute in many animal species (including humans), the neurophysiological and molecular bases of such sensory ability remain largely unknown in many animals. Recently, Russell and colleagues (Russell J, Vidal-Gadea AG, Makay A, Lanam C, Pierce-Shimomura JT. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111: 8269–8274, 2014) provided for the first time neuromolecular evidence for the sensory integration of thermal and mechanical sensory cues which underpin the hygrosensation strategy of an animal (i.e., the free-living roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans) that lacks specific sensory organs for humidity detection (i.e., hygroreceptors). Due to the remarkable similarities in the hygrosensation transduction mechanisms used by hygroreceptor-provided (e.g., insects) and hygroreceptor-lacking species (e.g., roundworms and humans), the findings of Russell et al. highlight potentially universal mechanisms for humidity detection that could be shared across a wide range of species, including humans.
Filingeri, D
42502a34-e7e6-4b49-b304-ce2ae0bf7b24
1 August 2015
Filingeri, D
42502a34-e7e6-4b49-b304-ce2ae0bf7b24
Filingeri, D
(2015)
Humidity sensation, cockroaches, worms, and humans: are common sensory mechanisms for hygrosensation shared across species?
Journal of Neurophysiology.
(doi:10.1152/jn.00730.2014).
Abstract
Although the ability to detect humidity (i.e., hygrosensation) represents an important sensory attribute in many animal species (including humans), the neurophysiological and molecular bases of such sensory ability remain largely unknown in many animals. Recently, Russell and colleagues (Russell J, Vidal-Gadea AG, Makay A, Lanam C, Pierce-Shimomura JT. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111: 8269–8274, 2014) provided for the first time neuromolecular evidence for the sensory integration of thermal and mechanical sensory cues which underpin the hygrosensation strategy of an animal (i.e., the free-living roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans) that lacks specific sensory organs for humidity detection (i.e., hygroreceptors). Due to the remarkable similarities in the hygrosensation transduction mechanisms used by hygroreceptor-provided (e.g., insects) and hygroreceptor-lacking species (e.g., roundworms and humans), the findings of Russell et al. highlight potentially universal mechanisms for humidity detection that could be shared across a wide range of species, including humans.
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Published date: 1 August 2015
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Local EPrints ID: 449068
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/449068
ISSN: 0022-3077
PURE UUID: cc0c9c64-94f2-42a5-8ede-956e81d1e13f
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Date deposited: 14 May 2021 16:31
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:05
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