{"doi":"10.7554/elife.53603","title":"Caenorhabditis elegans PIEZO channel coordinates multiple reproductive tissues to govern ovulation","abstract":"PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 are newly identified mechanosensitive ion channels that exhibit a preference for calcium in response to mechanical stimuli. In this study, we discovered the vital roles of pezo-1, the sole PIEZO ortholog in Caenorhabditiselegans, in regulating reproduction. A number of deletion alleles, as well as a putative gain-of-function mutant, of PEZO-1 caused a severe reduction in brood size. In vivo observations showed that oocytes undergo a variety of transit defects as they enter and exit the spermatheca during ovulation. Post-ovulation oocytes were frequently damaged during spermathecal contraction. However, the calcium signaling was not dramatically changed in the pezo-1 mutants during ovulation. Loss of PEZO-1 also led to an inability of self-sperm to navigate back to the spermatheca properly after being pushed out of the spermatheca during ovulation. These findings suggest that PEZO-1 acts in different reproductive tissues to promote proper ovulation and fertilization in C. elegans.","journal":"eLife","year":2020,"id":59810,"datarank":0.6307038929086449,"base_score":4.204692619390966,"endowment":4.204692619390966,"self_citation_contribution":0.6307038929086449,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.6307038929086449,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":66,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9537,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":315047,"name":"Jeff Bouffard","orcid":"0000-0001-9121-8416","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":316161,"name":"Avery Lord","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":315048,"name":"Katherine Brugman","orcid":"0000-0003-2625-2903","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":49667,"name":"Paul W. Sternberg","orcid":"0000-0002-7699-0173","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":292076,"name":"Erin J. Cram","orcid":"0000-0002-8129-1326","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":315049,"name":"Andy Golden","orcid":"0000-0002-8599-2031","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":315046,"name":"Xiaofei Bai","orcid":"0000-0001-8179-8162","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":66,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:08:26.834549Z","pmid":"32490809","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":[]}