Data from: Effect of altered production and storage of dopamine on development and behavior in C. elegans

Introduction: The nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), is an
advantageous model for studying developmental toxicology due to its well
defined developmental stages and homology to humans. It has been
established that across species, dopaminergic neurons are highly
vulnerable to neurotoxicant exposure, resulting in developmental neuronal
dysfunction and age-induced degeneration. C. elegans, with genetic
perturbations in dopamine system proteins, can provide insight into the
mechanisms of dopaminergic neurotoxicants. In this study, we present a
comprehensive analysis on the effect of gene mutations in dopamine-related
proteins on body size, development, and behavior in C. elegans. Methods:
We studied C. elegans that lack the ability to sequester dopamine (OK411)
and that overproduce dopamine (UA57) and a novel strain (MBIA) generated
by the genetic crossing of OK411 and UA57, which both lack the ability to
sequester dopamine into vesicles and, additionally, endogenously
overproduce dopamine. The MBIA strain was generated to address the
hypothesis that an endogenous increase in the production of dopamine can
rescue deficits caused by a lack of vesicular dopamine sequestration.
These strains were analyzed for body size, developmental stage,
reproduction, egg laying, motor behaviors, and neuronal health utilizing
multiple methods. Results: Our results further implicate proper dopamine
synthesis and sequestration in the regulation of C. elegans body size,
development through larval stages into gravid adulthood, and motor
functioning. Furthermore, our analyses demonstrate that body size in terms
of length is distinct from the developmental stage as fully developed
gravid adult C. elegans with disruptions in the dopamine system have
decreased body lengths. Thus, body size should not be used as a proxy for
the developmental stage when designing experiments. Discussion: Our
results provide additional evidence that the dopamine system impacts the
development, growth, and reproduction in C. elegans. Furthermore, our data
suggest that endogenously increasing the production of dopamine mitigates
deficits in C. elegans lacking the ability to package dopamine into
synaptic vesicles. The novel strain, MBIA, and novel analyses of
development and reproduction presented here can be utilized in
developmental neurotoxicity experiments.