Molecular Brain Physiology and Behavior, LIMES-Institute, University of Bonn, Germany.
Brain Research Center, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan.
PLoS Biol. 2014 Jun 24;12(6):e1001893. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001893. eCollection 2014 Jun.
Central mechanisms by which specific motor programs are selected to achieve meaningful behaviors are not well understood. Using electrophysiological recordings from pharyngeal nerves upon central activation of neurotransmitter-expressing cells, we show that distinct neuronal ensembles can regulate different feeding motor programs. In behavioral and electrophysiological experiments, activation of 20 neurons in the brain expressing the neuropeptide hugin, a homolog of mammalian neuromedin U, simultaneously suppressed the motor program for food intake while inducing the motor program for locomotion. Decreasing hugin neuropeptide levels in the neurons by RNAi prevented this action. Reducing the level of hugin neuronal activity alone did not have any effect on feeding or locomotion motor programs. Furthermore, use of promoter-specific constructs that labeled subsets of hugin neurons demonstrated that initiation of locomotion can be separated from modulation of its motor pattern. These results provide insights into a neural mechanism of how opposing motor programs can be selected in order to coordinate feeding and locomotive behaviors.
中枢机制中，特定的运动程序是如何被选择以实现有意义的行为尚不清楚。通过对中枢激活神经递质表达细胞后的咽神经进行电生理记录，我们发现不同的神经元集合可以调节不同的摄食运动程序。在行为和电生理实验中，激活表达神经肽 hugin 的 20 个神经元，该神经肽与哺乳动物神经调节素 U 同源，同时抑制摄食运动程序，同时诱导运动程序用于运动。通过 RNAi 降低神经元中的 hugin 神经肽水平可防止这种作用。单独降低 hugin 神经元活性水平对摄食或运动程序没有任何影响。此外，使用启动子特异性构建体标记 hugin 神经元的亚群表明，运动的启动可以与运动模式的调制分开。这些结果为了解如何选择对立的运动程序以协调摄食和运动行为的神经机制提供了思路。
