Samuel Aravinthan D T, Silva Ruwan A, Murthy Venkatesh N
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
J Neurosci. 2003 Jan 15;23(2):373-6. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.23-02-00373.2003.
Thermotactic behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans is sensitive to both a worm's ambient temperature (T(amb)) and its memory of the temperature of its cultivation (T(cult)). The AFD neuron is part of a neural circuit that underlies thermotactic behavior. By monitoring the fluorescence of pH-sensitive green fluorescent protein localized to synaptic vesicles, we measured the rate of the synaptic release of AFD in worms cultivated at temperatures between 15 and 25 degrees C, and subjected to fixed, ambient temperatures in the same range. We found that the rate of AFD synaptic release is high if either T(amb) > T(cult) or T(amb) < T(cult), but AFD synaptic release is low if T(amb) congruent with T(cult). This suggests that AFD encodes a direct comparison between T(amb) and T(cult).
秀丽隐杆线虫的趋温行为对其环境温度(T(amb))及其培养温度记忆(T(cult))均敏感。AFD神经元是趋温行为所依赖的神经回路的一部分。通过监测定位于突触小泡的pH敏感型绿色荧光蛋白的荧光,我们测量了在15至25摄氏度之间培养并置于相同温度范围内固定环境温度下的线虫中AFD的突触释放速率。我们发现,如果T(amb) > T(cult)或T(amb) < T(cult),AFD突触释放速率较高,但如果T(amb) 与T(cult) 一致,AFD突触释放速率较低。这表明AFD编码了T(amb)与T(cult)之间的直接比较。