Until now the results on profiling dopamine receptors in C. elegans have been incomplete and fragmentary. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression profile of dop-1 gene in C. elegans using 3 kb promoter with 3'-end locating before ATG of dop-1 gene. Methods. The strain of C. elegans with mutant unc-119 gene was used. To check a pattern of the dop-1 expression, the promoter of this gene was amplified using PCR. The animals were co-bombarded with plasmid pPD95.77 dop-1::GFP and reporter construct containing unc-119 gene. Results. Using GFP as a reporter protein, we built a whole picture of expression of dopamine receptor type 1 in C. elegans and found that this protein could be detected only in mechanosensory neurons such as PLM, PVQR, PVQL, ALNR, ALNL, DVAR, DVC.

Keywords: dopamine receptors, mechanosensory neurons, Caenorhabditis elegans, expression