Six innexins contribute to electrical coupling of C. elegans body-wall muscle.

ABSTRACT: C. elegans body-wall muscle cells are electrically coupled through gap junctions. Previous studies suggest that UNC-9 is an important, but not the only, innexin mediating the electrical coupling. Here we analyzed junctional current (I j ) for mutants of additional innexins to identify the remaining innexin(s) important to the coupling. The results suggest that a total of six innexins contribute to the coupling, including UNC-9, INX-1, INX-10, INX-11, INX-16, and INX-18. The I j deficiency in each mutant was rescued completely by expressing the corresponding wild-type innexin specifically in muscle, suggesting that the innexins function cell-autonomously. Comparisons of I j between various single, double, and triple mutants suggest that the six innexins probably form two distinct population

SUBMITTER: Liu P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3793928 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature