TY  - JOUR
A1  - Tolstenkov, Oleg
A1  - Auwera, Petrus van der
A1  - Costa, Wagner Steuer
A1  - Bazhanova, Olga
A1  - Gemeinhard, Tim
A1  - Bergs, Amelie
A1  - Gottschalk, Alexander
T1  - Functionally asymmetric motor neurons contribute to coordinating locomotion of Caenorhabditis elegans
T2  - eLife
N2  - Locomotion circuits developed in simple animals, and circuit motifs further evolved in higher animals. To understand locomotion circuit motifs, they must be characterized in many models. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans possesses one of the best-studied circuits for undulatory movement. Yet, for 1/6th of the cholinergic motor neurons (MNs), the AS MNs, functional information is unavailable. Ventral nerve cord (VNC) MNs coordinate undulations, in small circuits of complementary neurons innervating opposing muscles. AS MNs differ, as they innervate muscles and other MNs asymmetrically, without complementary partners. We characterized AS MNs by optogenetic, behavioral and imaging analyses. They generate asymmetric muscle activation, enabling navigation, and contribute to coordination of dorso-ventral undulation as well as anterio-posterior bending wave propagation. AS MN activity correlated with forward and backward locomotion, and they functionally connect to premotor interneurons (PINs) for both locomotion regimes. Electrical feedback from AS MNs via gap junctions may affect only backward PINs.
KW  - Research article
KW  - Neuroscience
KW  - Locomotor circuit
KW  - Optogenetics
KW  - Ca2+ imaging
KW  - Behavioral analysis
KW  - Gap junctions
KW  - C. elegans
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/47241
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-472416
SN  - 2050-084X
N1  - Copyright Tolstenkov et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
VL  - 7
IS  - e34997
SP  - 1
EP  - 28
PB  - eLife Sciences Publications
CY  - Cambridge
ER  -