{"doi":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1010029","title":"Redundant neural circuits regulate olfactory integration","abstract":"Olfactory integration is important for survival in a natural habitat. However, how the nervous system processes signals of two odorants present simultaneously to generate a coherent behavioral response is poorly understood. Here, we characterize circuit basis for a form of olfactory integration in Caenorhabditis elegans. We find that the presence of a repulsive odorant, 2-nonanone, that signals threat strongly blocks the attraction of other odorants, such as isoamyl alcohol (IAA) or benzaldehyde, that signal food. Using a forward genetic screen, we found that genes known to regulate the structure and function of sensory neurons, osm-5 and osm-1, played a critical role in the integration process. Loss of these genes mildly reduces the response to the repellent 2-nonanone and disrupts the integration effect. Restoring the function of OSM-5 in either AWB or ASH, two sensory neurons known to mediate 2-nonanone-evoked avoidance, is sufficient to rescue. Sensory neurons AWB and downstream interneurons AVA, AIB, RIM that play critical roles in olfactory sensorimotor response are able to process signals generated by 2-nonanone or IAA or the mixture of the two odorants and contribute to the integration. Thus, our results identify redundant neural circuits that regulate the robust effect of a repulsive odorant to block responses to attractive odorants and uncover the neuronal and cellular basis for this complex olfactory task.","journal":"PLoS Genetics","year":2022,"id":254119,"datarank":0.7963787296746476,"base_score":3.091042453358316,"endowment":3.091042453358316,"self_citation_contribution":0.4636563680037475,"citation_network_contribution":0.3327223616709002,"self_endowment_contribution":0.4636563680037475,"citer_contribution":0.3327223616709002,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":21,"citer_count":17,"citers_with_citation_signal":13,"citers_with_endowment":13,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.951,"is_data_producer":true,"deposit_databanks":{"figshare":["10.6084/m9.figshare.16850998"]},"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":355715,"name":"Taihong Wu","orcid":"0000-0002-9760-6978","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":820320,"name":"Shasha Tu","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":900642,"name":"Yuang Qin","orcid":"0000-0001-8053-3138","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":900643,"name":"Chengchen Shen","orcid":"0000-0001-5345-3001","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":900644,"name":"Jiangyun Li","orcid":"0000-0002-9801-2493","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":355713,"name":"Myung-Kyu Choi","orcid":"0000-0002-2660-1571","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":820321,"name":"Fengyun Duan","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":297565,"name":"Yun Zhang","orcid":"0000-0002-7631-858X","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":355716,"name":"Wenxing Yang","orcid":"0000-0003-0965-787X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":65,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:25:03.918844Z","pmid":"35100258","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":[]}