Fig. 3: The ASER neuron controls both attraction and aversion responses to ethanol.

a Ethanol chemotaxis responses of wild-type animals and mutants with neuronal functions on assay plates containing either 25 mM or 75 mM NaCl. Affected neurons in the mutants are highlighted with blue boxes. b Schematic diagram illustrating the roles of ASER, ASEL, and AWC neurons in mediating bidirectional ethanol chemotaxis. c Examination of the redundant role of ASER, ASEL, and AWC neurons in ethanol chemotaxis behaviors using worms with targeted neuronal ablations, conducted on assay plates with 25 mM or 75 mM NaCl. d tax-4 mutants lost ethanol chemotaxis on 25 mM or 75 mM NaCl. Re-introduction of TAX-4 using its own promoter or in ASER neuron rescues both positive and negative chemotaxis. Expression in ASEL or AWC neurons rescue negative and positive chemotaxis, respectively. e Ethanol chemotaxis responses of wild-type worms, mutants, and animals with genetically ablated neuron(s) on assay plates with either 25 mM or 75 mM NaCl. Statistics were analyzed by two-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test (a, c, e) or Tukey’s multiple comparisons test (d). *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, n.s. statistically not significant. From left to right, P is 0.9938, 0.9997, <0.0001, <0.0001, <0.0001, <0.0001, 0.7253, <0.0001, 0.9463, <0.0001, 0.9997, <0.0001, <0.0001, <0.0001, <0.0001 and <0.0001 (a), 0.9137, 0.9998, 0.2813, 0.3543, <0.0001, <0.0001, 0.9684, 0.9996, 0.9832, <0.0001, <0.0001 and 0.8904 (c), <0.0001, <0.0001, 0.6202, <0.0001, >0.9999, <0.0001, <0.0001, <0.0001, >0.9999 and <0.0001 (d, compared to WT), <0.0001, 0.0141, <0.0001, <0.0001, <0.0001, <0.0001, <0.0001 and <0.0001 (d, compared to tax-4), 0.1221, 0.8886, <0.0001, 0.0003, <0.0001, <0.0001, 0.2247, 0.4317, <0.0001, 0.9983, <0.0001 and <0.0001 (e). Data represent >3 biological replicates performed on different days, with animal numbers shown in parenthesis. Data are shown as means ± SEM. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.