(A) Schematic of chemotaxis assay setup. (B) Chemotaxis index of wild-type animals and mutants with different alleles of lite-1 that have defects in diacetyl response. P-values are from unpaired two-tailed t-tests, n = 4 biological replicates, each an average of 4 plates. (C) Chemotaxis index of wild-type and lite-1 (yum2880) animals with different diacetyl concentrations (5 μl). P-values are from unpaired two-tailed t-tests, n = 3 biological replicates, each an average of 4 plates. (D) Time series of wild-type (blue line) animals and mutants with different alleles of lite-1 (orange line) when stimulated with blue light (blue shaded box). n = 3 biological replicates, each an average of 12 wells.

(A) Confocal image of labelled sensory neurons and calcium imaging traces showing the responses of three neurons when exposed to high concentrations of diacetyl. (B) Neuronal activity of wild-type controls with lite-1 mutants. (C) Neuronal activity of wild-type controls to unc-13 mutants. Grey shaded box denotes the presence of diacetyl. Shaded area around the activity dynamics denotes standard error.

(A) Percent of worms that are swimming at two minutes after exposure to buffer untreated or to diacetyl. Wild-type animals continue swimming in buffer and diacetyl (WT, left) whereas worms expressing LITE-1 in body wall muscles (Pmyo-3::LITE-1, right) are mostly paralysed when treated with diacetyl. (B) Sample midline trajectories from wild-type and Pmyo-3::LITE-1 animals showing difference in motion (each trajectory shows 6 seconds of swimming). (C) Worm body length over time after treatment. Wild-type animals do not show a significant length difference in either buffer or diacetyl treatments (left) whereas worms expressing LITE-1 in body wall muscles show a significant contraction in response to diacetyl (right; insert showing the average contraction). P-values from paired two-tailed t-test, n ≥ 12 worms. (D) Molecular docking of diacetyl into the AlphaFold-predicted structure of LITE-1 with predicted micromolar affinity.

(A) Chemotaxis index of wild-type animals and lite-1 mutants for known odorants. P-values are from unpaired two-tailed t-tests, n = 4 biological replicates each an average of 4 plates. (B) Molecular docking of 2,3-pentanedione into the AlphaFold-predicted structure of LITE-1 with predicted micromolar affinity. (C) Percent of worms that are swimming at two minutes after exposure to buffer untreated or to 2,3-pentanedione. Wild-type animals continue swimming in buffer and 2,3-pentanedione (WT, left) whereas worms expressing LITE-1 in body wall muscles (Pmyo-3::LITE-1, right) are mostly paralysed when treated with 2,3-pentanedione. (D) Worm body length over time after treatment. Wild-type animals do not show a significant length difference in either buffer or 2,3-pentanedione treatments (left) whereas worms expressing LITE-1 in body wall muscles show a significant contraction in response to 2,3-pentanedione (right; insert showing the average contraction). P-values from paired two-tailed t-test, n ≥ 12 worms.