Homeostatic Feedback Modulates the Development of Two-State Patterned Activity in a Model Serotonin Motor Circuit in Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: Neuron activity accompanies synapse formation and maintenance, but how early circuit activity contributes to behavior development is not well understood. Here, we use the Caenorhabditis elegans egg-laying motor circuit as a model to understand how coordinated cell and circuit activity develops and drives a robust two-state behavior in adults. Using calcium imaging in behaving animals, we find the serotonergic hermaphrodite-specific neurons (HSNs) and vulval muscles show rhythmic calcium transients in L4 larvae before eggs are produced. HSN activity in L4 is tonic and lacks the alternating burst-firing/quiescent pattern seen in egg-laying adults. Vulval muscle activity in L4 is initially uncoordinated but becomes synchronous as the anterior and posterior muscle arms meet at HSN synaptic rel

SUBMITTER: Ravi B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6041790 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature