The burrowing behavior of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans: a new assay for the study of neuromuscular disorders.

ABSTRACT: The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been a powerful model system for the study of key muscle genes relevant to human neuromuscular function and disorders. The behavioral robustness of C. elegans, however, has hindered its use in the study of certain neuromuscular disorders because many worm models of human disease show only subtle phenotypes while crawling. By contrast, in their natural habitat, C. elegans likely spends much of the time burrowing through the soil matrix. We developed a burrowing assay to challenge motor output by placing worms in agar-filled pipettes of increasing densities. We find that burrowing involves distinct kinematics and turning strategies from crawling that vary with the properties of the substrate. We show that mutants mimicking Duchenne muscular dystrophy b

SUBMITTER: Beron C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4444045 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature