Insulin Receptor Gene Found to Be Necessary for Worms to Learn

[Northerner]

A newly discovered insulin receptor gene was found to be necessary for worms to learn a taste avoidance task. In a recently reported study, worms learned to expect food when placed in an unpleasant taste situation while other worms learned they would not get food and would starve under this same unpleasant condition. Those that learned they would get food gravitated to the unpleasant taste condition at a later time but the worms that starved avoided the unpleasant testing condition. However, when worms with a defect in this newly discovered insulin receptor gene were put to the task, they could not perform taste avoidance learning.

The study was recently reported in the journal Science. A group of Japanese scientists carried out the study and they were associated with the Graduate School of Science at the University of Tokyo in Japan.

http://guardianlv.com/2014/07/insulin-receptor-gene-found-to-be-necessary-for-worms-to-learn/