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. 2015 Aug;114(2):763-7.
doi: 10.1152/jn.00730.2014. Epub 2014 Oct 15.

Humidity sensation, cockroaches, worms, and humans: are common sensory mechanisms for hygrosensation shared across species?

Davide Filingeri  1
Affiliations

Humidity sensation, cockroaches, worms, and humans: are common sensory mechanisms for hygrosensation shared across species?

Davide Filingeri. J Neurophysiol. 2015 Aug.

Abstract

Although the ability to detect humidity (i.e., hygrosensation) represents an important sensory attribute in many animal species (including humans), the neurophysiological and molecular bases of such sensory ability remain largely unknown in many animals. Recently, Russell and colleagues (Russell J, Vidal-Gadea AG, Makay A, Lanam C, Pierce-Shimomura JT. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111: 8269-8274, 2014) provided for the first time neuromolecular evidence for the sensory integration of thermal and mechanical sensory cues which underpin the hygrosensation strategy of an animal (i.e., the free-living roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans) that lacks specific sensory organs for humidity detection (i.e., hygroreceptors). Due to the remarkable similarities in the hygrosensation transduction mechanisms used by hygroreceptor-provided (e.g., insects) and hygroreceptor-lacking species (e.g., roundworms and humans), the findings of Russell et al. highlight potentially universal mechanisms for humidity detection that could be shared across a wide range of species, including humans.

Keywords: humidity; hygrosensation; mechanosensation; thermosensation.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Hygrosensation strategies in hygroreceptor-provided and hygroreceptor-lacking animal species. A: the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana L., is provided with specific hygroreceptors located in the antenna, which respond to increases/decreases in humidity via a mechanoactivated sensory transduction: increases in humidity induce swelling of the hygroreceptor sensillum wall, thus selectively exciting moist cells; decreases in humidity induce shrinking of the hygroreceptor sensillum wall, thus selectively exciting dry cells (Tichy and Kallina 2010). B: the hygroreceptors of the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, present mechanoactivated transduction mechanisms similar to those observed in the cockroach; furthermore, temperature-activated transient receptor potential (TRP) cation channels have been identified on the hygroreceptor sensillum, thus indicating that evaporation-induced changes in the hygroreceptor temperature could also contribute to detect changes in humidity via temperature-activated sensory transduction (Liu et al. 2007). C: despite not having been provided with specific hygroreceptors, the free-living roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans has been shown to detect humidity via a hygrosensation strategy that is based on thermo- and mechanosensory pathways: humidity-dependent changes in skin hydration seem to activate mechanosensitive neurons via a stretch-induced mechanism, whereas changes in skin temperature due to the evaporative cooling resulting when moving along humidity gradients seem to activate thermosensitive neurons in the worms' skin (Russell et al. 2014). D: humans have been shown to sense humidity despite the absence of specific skin hygroreceptors: the sensory integration of cutaneous thermal (i.e., evaporative cooling) and tactile (i.e., mechanical pressure and friction) sensory inputs has been shown to be used as a hygrosensation strategy to detect skin wetness and humidity (Filingeri et al. 2014a).
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