Integrated response to a repellent-paired food lawn is regulated by a common set of factors.

(A) Wild-type animals also leave the lawn of OP50 paired with 100% benzaldehyde; in contrast, paring an OP50 lawn with 100% 1-octanol does not repel worms (n = 2 assays for each condition).(B-E) Genetic ablation of the sensory neurons AWB (B, pAWB::mec-4(d), n = 3 assays each) or ASK (C, pASK::caspase, n = 3 assays each) or mutating the genetic components of the TGF-β/DAF-7 pathway (D, daf-7(e1372), n = 3 assays each; E, daf-1(m40), n = 4 assays each) alters the decision to leave the benzaldehyde-paired OP50 lawn. Each bar graph reports the average percentage of worms outside the lawn 25 minutes (B, D, E) or 5 minutes (C) after the start of the assay. Mean ± SEM, mutants or transgenic animals are compared with wild-type animals with Student’s t test, ** p ≤ 0.01, *** p ≤ 0.001, n.s., not significant.