RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Co-option of neurotransmitter signaling for inter-organismal communication in C. elegans JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 275693 DO 10.1101/275693 A1 Christopher D. Chute A1 Elizabeth M. DiLoreto A1 Ying K. Zhang A1 Diego Rayes A1 Veronica L. Coyle A1 Hee June Choi A1 Mark J. Alkema A1 Frank C. Schroeder A1 Jagan Srinivasan YR 2018 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/09/18/275693.abstract AB Biogenic amine neurotransmitters play a central role in metazoan biology, and both their chemical structures and cognate receptors are evolutionarily conserved. Their primary roles are in intra-organismal signaling, whereas biogenic amines are not normally recruited for communication between separate individuals. Here, we show that in C. elegans, a neurotransmitter-sensing G protein-coupled receptor, TYRA-2, is required for avoidance responses to osas#9, an ascaroside pheromone that incorporates the neurotransmitter octopamine. Neuronal ablation, cell-specific genetic rescue, and calcium imaging show that tyra-2 expression in the nociceptive neuron ASH is necessary and sufficient to induce osas#9 avoidance. Ectopic expression in the AWA neuron, which is generally associated with attractive responses, reverses the response to osas#9, resulting in attraction instead of avoidance behavior, confirming that TYRA-2 partakes in sensing osas#9. The TYRA-2/osas#9 signaling system thus represents an inter-organismal communication channel that evolved via co-option of a neurotransmitter and its cognate receptor.