Two K2P Channels, TWK-46 and TWK-26 do not affect C. elegans Egg-Laying Behavior

TL;DR

This study found that two K2P channels in C. elegans, TWK-26 and TWK-46, do not influence egg-laying behavior despite being expressed in the relevant neural circuit.

Contribution

The novelty lies in experimentally determining that these two K2P channels do not affect a specific physiological behavior in C. elegans.

Findings

Null mutants of twk-26 and twk-46 showed no significant differences in egg-laying behavior compared to wild-type worms.

TWK-26 and TWK-46 are expressed in the egg-laying neural circuit but do not influence the behavior.

Abstract

Two-pore domain potassium channels, also known as K2P channels, play vital roles in maintaining the resting membrane potential in excitable cells, affecting a variety of physiological processes across species. The

Caenorhabditis elegans

(

C. elegans

) genome contains 46 different K2P-encoding genes, yet most of their functions remain unknown. Here, we have investigated the possible roles of two

C. elegans

K2P channel genes –

twk-26

and

twk-46

– that are expressed in the egg-laying neural circuit by characterizing the egg-laying behavior of null mutants generated by CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing. However, using a variety of assays, we did not observe significant differences in egg-laying behavior between

twk-26

and

twk-46

mutants and wild-type worms
.

Figures