Measuring Glutathione-induced Feeding Response in Hydra

Summary

Here we describe a simple assay for the quantification of the feeding response in hydra induced by the reduced form of glutathione. This assay relies on measuring the distance between the apical end of the tentacle and mouth of hydra.

Abstract

Hydra is among the most primitive organisms possessing a nervous system and chemosensation for detecting reduced glutathione (GSH) for capturing the prey. The movement of prey organisms causes mechanosensory discharge of the stinging cells called nematocysts from hydra, which are inserted into the prey. The feeding response in hydra, which includes curling of the tentacles to bring the prey towards the mouth, opening of the mouth and consequent engulfing of the prey, is triggered by GSH present in the fluid released from the injured prey. To be able to identify the molecular mechanism of the feeding response in hydra which is unknown to date, it is necessary to establish an assay to measure the feeding response. Here, we describe a simple method for the quantitation of the feeding response in which the distance between the apical end of the tentacle and mouth of hydra is measured and the ratio of such distance before and after the addition of GSH is determined. The ratio, called the relative tentacle spread, was found to give a measure of the feeding response. This assay was validated using a starvation model in which starved hydra show an enhanced feeding response in comparison with daily fed hydra.

Introduction

Hydra is the most primitive organism possessing a nervous system and chemosensation for detecting reduced glutathione (GSH) for capturing the prey¹. It feeds on a variety of animals such as nematode, crustacea, insect larvae, tadpoles and newly hatched fish¹. The movement of these prey organisms causes mechanosensory discharge of the stinging capsules called nematocysts from hydra, which are inserted into the prey². GSH present in the fluid released from the injured prey subsequently activates the feeding response in hydra which includes curling of the tentacles to bring the prey towards the mouth, opening of the mouth, and consequent ....

Protocol

1. Hydra Culture and Measurement of the Feeding Response

1. Maintain hydra polyps in culture by feeding them daily with artemia and keeping them in a medium (1 mM Tris-HCl buffer, pH 7.6, 1 mM NaCl, 1 mM CaCl₂, 0.1 mM KCl, and 0.1 mM MgSO₄) contained in a glass bowl at 18 °C under 12 hr light-12 hr dark cycles as described earlier¹².
2. For measuring the feeding response, transfer one mature hydra polyp having 5 to 6 tentacles to a single well of a 24-well plate. Remove the residual medium from the well by tilting it, and then immediately add 500 µl of fresh medium.
3. Prepare 9 µM glutathione solution in hydra m....

Results

Glutathione causes hydra to exhibit curling of the tentacles towards the mouth for the purpose of engulfing the prey. Such curling of tentacles brings apical ends of the tentacles closer to the hypostome. This results in the reduction in the tentacle spread, or the linear distance between apical end of the tentacle and hypostome (Figure 1). The relative tentacle spread, or the ratio of average tentacle spread before and after adding glutathione, averaged across multiple polyps reduces over time. The rela.......

Discussion

Feeding behavior in hydra represents one of the most ancestral chemosensory systems in the metazoans. Although the presence of GSH in the crustacean fluid released after nematocyst-assisted prey capture was detected long ago¹, neither the GSHR protein nor the putative encoding gene/s have been characterized from hydra to date. Few attempts have been made to characterize GSH binding proteins in hydra^{8, 14, 15}. However, the identity of these putative receptor proteins remains obscure and very few othe.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Cooled Incubator	Panasonic	MIR-254-PE
Microscope	Leica	S8AP0
Camera for the microscope	Leica	EC3
Reduced glutathione	Sigma	G4251	Stored at 4 °C. Bring the bottle to room temperature before opening to avoid oxidation
Image editing program	GIMP	Version 2.8