Worms love Coffee too! Characterizing the neural substrates that regulate odor-guided responses to coffee.

Abstract

The coffee industry reaches over 80 billion US dollars in revenue partially due to the numerous chemicals that allow for coffee's highly attractive aroma and overall flavor. Many people integrate coffee into their everyday routine; therefore, understanding the attraction to coffee can facilitate, 1) the characterization of its attractive nature, and, 2) allow further understanding of how humans interpret taste and smell on a molecular and cellular level, from initial sensation to higher processing of these complex neural signals. We report that the model worm, C. elegans , can smell and perform strong attraction behavior using chemotaxis towards various types of coffee odors. In this study, we show that the nematode C. elegans is strongly attracted to various forms of coffee. We have also identified neuronal molecules that mediate this sensory-dependent behavior. Overall, we provide a platform to more thoroughly dissect the mechanisms and neuronal circuits that mediate odor-guided behavior to a complex human-sensed stimulus.