{"doi":"10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112452","title":"High-fidelity encoding of mechanostimuli by tactile food-sensing neurons requires an ensemble of ion channels","abstract":"The nematode C. elegans uses mechanosensitive neurons to detect bacteria, which are food for worms. These neurons release dopamine to suppress foraging and promote dwelling. Through a screen of genes highly expressed in dopaminergic food-sensing neurons, we identify a K2P-family potassium channel-TWK-2-that damps their activity. Strikingly, loss of TWK-2 restores mechanosensation to neurons lacking the NOMPC-like channel transient receptor potential 4 (TRP-4), which was thought to be the primary mechanoreceptor for tactile food sensing. The alternate mechanoreceptor mechanism uncovered by TWK-2 mutation requires three Deg/ENaC channel subunits: ASIC-1, DEL-3, and UNC-8. Analysis of cell-physiological responses to mechanostimuli indicates that TRP and Deg/ENaC channels work together to set the range of analog encoding of stimulus intensity and to improve signal-to-noise characteristics and temporal fidelity of food-sensing neurons. We conclude that a specialized mechanosensory modality-tactile food sensing-emerges from coordination of distinct force-sensing mechanisms housed in one type of sensory neuron.","journal":"Cell Reports","year":2023,"id":346004,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":12,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9494,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1085986,"name":"Benjamin Brissette","orcid":"0000-0002-8652-5208","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1086348,"name":"Tim Hallacy","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1059424,"name":"Hassan Ahamed","orcid":"0000-0002-5862-1956","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1086349,"name":"Elver Ho","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":86966,"name":"Sharad Ramanathan","orcid":"0000-0001-9445-1248","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364200,"name":"Niels Ringstad","orcid":"0000-0002-8679-2269","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1085985,"name":"Alice Fok","orcid":"0000-0003-0013-4917","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":64,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:11:44.152490Z","pmid":"37119137","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}