Fig. 6: Ablation of AWC neurons induce UPR^mt and inhibit food digestion.

a Representative microscope images and quantitative analysis of hsp-6p::GFP expression in WT and WT carries with odr-1p:: egl-1::mKate2 animals. Obtained p value was: WT vs ylfEx179[odr-1p::egl-1::mKate2]; p < 0.0001. b Representative microscope images and quantitative analysis hsp-6p::GFP expression in WT, animals with AWC ablation. Animals with AWC ablation (PY7502 strain) contains srtx-1p::GFP, which serves as a co-injection marker expressed in AFD neurons (arrow). Obtained p value was: WT vs AWC ablation; p < 0.0001. c Developmental progression of synchronized L1 animals (WT and WT carries with odr-1p::egl-1::mKate2) grown on HK-E. coli + SS bacteria for 96 h at 20 °C. Obtained p value was: Control vs Transgene; p < 0.0001. d Developmental progression of synchronized L1 animals [WT and AWC (-)] grown on HK-E. coli + SS bacteria for 96 h at 20 °C. Obtained p value (from L4 stage) was: WT vs AWC ablation; p < 0.0001. e A model for the function of neuronal ROS in regulation of food digestion in intestine. Specific knockout of PRDX-2 in olfactory neurons (AWC) leads to increased ROS levels. This triggers the release of the neuropeptide (NLP-1) and induces the intestinal UPR^mt, which in turn shuts down food digestion. (Created by the Qian Li using Adobe Illustrator 2020). For all panels, n = the number of worms. Data are represented as mean ± SEM. All statistical analyses were preformed using unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test. ***p < 0.001 n.s., not significant. All experiments were performed independently at least three times. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. See also Supplementary Fig. 8.