PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Keiko Weir
AU  - Christophe Dupre
AU  - Lena van Giesen
AU  - Amy S.Y. Lee
AU  - Nicholas W. Bellono
TI  - A molecular filter for the cnidarian stinging response
AID  - 10.1101/2020.04.04.025338
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.04.04.025338
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/05/2020.04.04.025338.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/05/2020.04.04.025338.full
AB  - All animals detect and integrate diverse environmental signals to mediate behavior. Cnidarians, including jellyfish and sea anemones, both detect and capture prey using stinging cells called nematocytes which fire a venom-covered barb via an unknown triggering mechanism. Here, we show that nematocytes from Nematostella vectensis use a specialized voltage-gated calcium channel (nCav) to distinguish salient sensory cues and control the explosive discharge response. Adaptations in nCav confer unusually-sensitive, voltage-dependent inactivation to inhibit responses to non-prey signals, such as mechanical water turbulence. Prey-derived chemosensory signals are synaptically transmitted to acutely relieve nCav inactivation, enabling mechanosensitive-triggered predatory attack. These findings reveal a molecular basis for the cnidarian stinging response and highlight general principles by which single proteins integrate diverse signals to elicit discrete animal behaviors.