Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, United States.
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis, United States.
Elife. 2021 Jul 30;10:e64108. doi: 10.7554/eLife.64108.
is an emerging model organism for neuroscience due to its small size, transparency, genetic tractability, and regenerative nervous system; however, fundamental properties of its sensorimotor behaviors remain unknown. Here, we use microfluidic devices combined with fluorescent calcium imaging and surgical resectioning to study how the diffuse nervous system coordinates 's mechanosensory response. Mechanical stimuli cause animals to contract, and we find this response relies on at least two distinct networks of neurons in the oral and aboral regions of the animal. Different activity patterns arise in these networks depending on whether the animal is contracting spontaneously or contracting in response to mechanical stimulation. Together, these findings improve our understanding of how 's diffuse nervous system coordinates sensorimotor behaviors. These insights help reveal how sensory information is processed in an animal with a diffuse, radially symmetric neural architecture unlike the dense, bilaterally symmetric nervous systems found in most model organisms.
秀丽隐杆线虫是神经科学中的一种新兴模式生物，因为它体积小、透明、遗传操作简单，而且神经系统具有再生能力；然而，其感觉运动行为的基本特征尚不清楚。在这里，我们使用微流控装置结合荧光钙成像和手术切除来研究弥散神经系统如何协调机械感觉反应。机械刺激会导致动物收缩，我们发现这种反应依赖于动物口腔和肛门区域中至少两个不同的神经元网络。这些网络中会出现不同的活动模式，具体取决于动物是自发收缩还是对机械刺激作出反应而收缩。总的来说，这些发现增进了我们对秀丽隐杆线虫弥散神经系统如何协调感觉运动行为的理解。这些见解有助于揭示在具有与大多数模式生物中密集的双侧对称神经系统不同的弥散、径向对称神经结构的动物中，感觉信息是如何被处理的。
