Controlling interneuron activity in Caenorhabditis elegans to evoke chemotactic behaviour.

ABSTRACT: Animals locate and track chemoattractive gradients in the environment to find food. With its small nervous system, Caenorhabditis elegans is a good model system in which to understand how the dynamics of neural activity control this search behaviour. Extensive work on the nematode has identified the neurons that are necessary for the different locomotory behaviours underlying chemotaxis through the use of laser ablation, activity recording in immobilized animals and the study of mutants. However, we do not know the neural activity patterns in C. elegans that are sufficient to control its complex chemotactic behaviour. To understand how the activity in its interneurons coordinate different motor programs to lead the animal to food, here we used optogenetics and new optical tools to manipula

SUBMITTER: Kocabas A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4229948 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature