RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Caenorhabditis elegans as an emerging model for studying the basic biology of anorectic effects of nicotine JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 099952 DO 10.1101/099952 A1 Robert Sobkowiak A1 Piotr Kaczmarek A1 Mateusz Kowalski A1 Rafał Kabaciński A1 Andrzej Lesicki YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/01/12/099952.abstract AB Nicotine decreases food intake, and smokers often report that they smoke to control their weight. To see whether similar phenomena could be observed in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, we challenged drug-naϊve nematodes with a chronic low (0.01 mM) and high (1 mM) nicotine concentration for 55 h (from hatching to adulthood). After that, we recorded changes in their behavior in a nicotine gradient, where they could choose a desired nicotine concentration. By using a combination of behavioral and morphometric methods, we found that both nicotine and food modulate worm behavior. In the presence of food the nematodes adapted to the low nicotine concentration, when placed in the gradient, chose a similar nicotine concentration like C. elegans adapted to the high nicotine concentration. However, in the absence of food, the nematodes adapted to the low nicotine concentration, when placed in the gradient of this alkaloid, chose a similar nicotine concentration like naive worms. The nematodes growing up in the presence of high concentrations of nicotine had a statistically smaller body size, compared to the control condition, and the presence of food did not cause any enhanced slowing movement. These results provide a platform for more detailed molecular and cellular studies of nicotine addiction and food intake in this model organism.