Caenorhabditis elegans response to salt

This thesis describes my work, where I used genetic methods to identify new genes involved in salt taste in C. elegans. In addition, I used calcium imaging to characterize the cellular response of C. elegans to salt. The thesis is divided into five sections and each section is summarized below. In chapter 1, I discuss the importance of salt for our health and subsequently our current knowledge about the different taste modalities and how their sensations are regulated in mammals and Drosophila. Next, I discuss several sensory behaviours of C. elegans and the signal transduction pathways involved, with an emphasis on salt chemotaxis. Furthermore, I discuss different types of learning and memory observed in C. elegans and neurotransmitters involved. Finally, I discuss the importance of C. elegans as a model organism and the behavioural and neuronal methods commonly employed to study C. elegans response to salt.