# Elucidating How Neuropeptides Communicate Chemosensory Information During Developmental Decision Making

> **NIH NIH F31** · CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · 2022 · $46,752

## Abstract

Project Summary / Abstract
Our framework of understanding communication within the nervous system has traditionally focused on
neurotransmitter-based synaptic transmission, thereby leaving out the importance of neuropeptides and their
cognate receptors as modulatory elements. It is becoming increasingly clear that neuropeptides regulate
important neurological processes by mediating communication between neurons and across tissues.
Accordingly, neuropeptides have been implicated a broad array of neurological disorders including
neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. However, the precise molecular
mechanisms that explain how neuropeptides participate in neurotransmission are not well understood. The
overarching goal of this proposal is to use the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism to
further our understanding of how neuropeptides communicate information within a densely connected nervous
system. In this proposal, I plan to delineate a neuropeptide-based signaling mechanism that transmits
chemosensory information in order to make an important developmental decision. Specifically, this
proposal will study how neuropeptides participate in the dauer exit decision, which is an irreversible
developmental decision in which C. elegans that have previously entered the stress-resistant diapause state
(termed dauer) choose to exit from that state and return to their reproductive life cycle as late stage larval
worms. Aim 1 of this proposal seeks to broadly identify and characterize neuropeptide genes that are essential
for the dauer exit decision. Aim 2 takes a single neuron approach and focuses on a specific chemosensory
neuron essential for dauer exit: the ASJ neuron. In this aim, I will identify which neuropeptide(s) ASJ relies on
in order to mediate the dauer exit decision. Finally, in Aim 3, I examine how neuropeptides themselves are
regulated in response to appropriate external stimuli by using reporter technology to in-depth study the
regulation of one particular neuropeptide gene in the ASJ neuron demonstrated to be important for dauer exit.
Collectively, all three aims will portray a clearer picture of how neuropeptides serve as a bridge between
chemosensory inputs and downstream developmental programs in an organism such as C. elegans.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10284931
- **Project number:** 5F31NS120501-02
- **Recipient organization:** CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- **Principal Investigator:** Mark G Zhang
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $46,752
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-12-01 → 2023-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10284931

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10284931, Elucidating How Neuropeptides Communicate Chemosensory Information During Developmental Decision Making (5F31NS120501-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10284931. Licensed CC0.

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