scholarly journals Reply to “First report of action potentials in a C. elegans neuron is premature”

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 366-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry E Mellem ◽  
Penelope J Brockie ◽  
David M Madsen ◽  
Andres V Maricq
Keyword(s):  
Action Potentials ◽  
First Report ◽  
C Elegans

scholarly journals First report of action potentials in a C. elegans neuron is premature

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn R Lockery ◽  
Miriam B Goodman ◽  
Serge Faumont
Keyword(s):  
Action Potentials ◽  
First Report ◽  
C Elegans

scholarly journals The quest for action potentials in C. elegans neurons hits a plateau

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 377-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn R Lockery ◽  
Miriam B Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Action Potentials ◽  
C Elegans

scholarly journals Action potentials contribute to neuronal signaling in C. elegans

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 865-867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry E Mellem ◽  
Penelope J Brockie ◽  
David M Madsen ◽  
Andres V Maricq
Keyword(s):  
Action Potentials ◽  
Neuronal Signaling ◽  
C Elegans

scholarly journals The C.elegans AWA Olfactory Neuron Fires Calcium-Mediated All-or-None Action Potentials

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Liu ◽  
Philip B. Kidd ◽  
May Dobosiewicz ◽  
Cornelia I. Bargmann
Keyword(s):  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Action Potentials ◽  
Neural Coding ◽  
Patch Clamp Recording ◽  
Olfactory Neurons ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Coding Schemes ◽  
Current Voltage ◽  
Ion Substitution ◽  
Specialized Function

SummaryWe find, unexpectedly, that C. elegans neurons can encode information through regenerative all-or-none action potentials. In a survey of current-voltage relationships in C. elegans neurons, we discovered that AWA olfactory neurons generate membrane potential spikes with defining characteristics of action potentials. Ion substitution experiments, pharmacology, and mutant analysis identified a voltage-gated CaV1 calcium channel and a Shaker-type potassium channel that underlie action potential dynamics in AWA. Simultaneous patch-clamp recording and calcium imaging in AWA revealed spike-associated calcium signals that were also observed after odor stimulation of intact animals, suggesting that natural odor stimuli induce AWA action potentials. The stimulus regimes that elicited action potentials match AWA’s proposed specialized function in climbing odor gradients. Our results provide evidence that C. elegans can use digital as well as analog coding schemes, expand the computational repertoire of its nervous system, and inform future modeling of its neural coding and network dynamics.

scholarly journals First Report of Chalara elegans on Roots of Black Elderberry

Plant Disease ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 93 (9) ◽  
pp. 963-963 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. V. Michel
Keyword(s):  
Sandy Loam ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Drainage Water ◽  
Healthy Plant ◽  
Sterile Soil ◽  
Causal Organism ◽  
First Report ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Chalara Elegans ◽  
Old Trees

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra L.) is organically grown in Switzerland primarily for the flowers, which are used for the production of candies. In June of 2006 in a commercial orchard in Knonau, Switzerland, leaves prematurely turned yellow and dropped off. Other symptoms included weak growth of new twigs in the spring and wilting of leaves during the hotter temperatures of summer. Chlamydospores of Chalara elegans Nag Raj & Kendrick (synonym Thielaviopsis basicola (Berk. & Broome) Ferr.) (1) were found on fine roots of 4-year-old trees. In 2004, similar aboveground symptoms had been observed in two elderberry orchards in Emmental, Switzerland, but no causal organism was detected at that time. All three orchards were planted during 2002 with plants obtained from the same nursery. The pathogenicity of C. elegans on black elderberry was confirmed at the Agroscope Changins Wädenswil ACW Research Center in Conthey. Black elderberry seedlings were produced from seeds collected from a healthy plant in the fall of 2007. Seeds were placed on wet filter paper in petri dishes and incubated at 1°C for 6 months. Germinated seeds were transplanted in seed trays filled with steam-sterilized peat substrate and maintained in a greenhouse at 16 to 22°C. In the spring of 2008, a strain of C. elegans was recovered from carrot on potato dextrose agar (PDA) for artificial inoculation of elderberry. Mycelium edges of the isolate were transferred on two pieces of PDA to a clay/V8 medium. The medium consisted of 50 ml of expanded clay granules and 20 ml of clarified V8 juice in 250-ml Erlenmeyer flasks that had been autoclaved for 30 min. C. elegans cultures were incubated in darkness at 24°C for 1 month. Sandy loam soil with a pH of 7.4 (soil/water; 1:1 (wt/vol)) was autoclaved twice for 45 min with a 1-day interval. Plastic pots (0.5 liter) were first filled with 300 ml of sterile soil. Twenty milliliters of C. elegans inoculum were then added and covered with 100 ml of sterile soil. One black elderberry seedling with two true leaves fully expanded (3 to 5 cm high) was transplanted into each of five pots with inoculated clay granules and noninoculated clay granules. Plants were maintained in a greenhouse at 18 to 25°C and watered with tap water. Inoculated and control pots were kept in two separate trays to avoid cross contamination by drainage water. After 2 months, inoculated plants were approximately half the size of control plants. Approximately 75% of the inoculated roots were brown because of the occurrence of chlamydospores of C. elegans, which was reisolated on PDA. To my knowledge, this is the first report of C. elegans on roots of black elderberry. References: (1) K. H. Domsch et al. Compendium of Soil Fungi. Vol. 1. IHW-Verlag, Eching, Germany, 1993.

scholarly journals EGL-19 and EXP-2 Ion Channels Modelling within C. Elegans Pharyngeal Muscle Cell Allows Reproduction of CA2+ Driven Action Potentials, Both Single Events and Trains

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey Yu. Palyanov ◽  
Khristina V. Samoilova ◽  
Natalia V. Palyanova
Keyword(s):  
Ion Channels ◽  
Muscle Cell ◽  
Action Potentials ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Signal Transmission ◽  
Open Science ◽  
Time Profile ◽  
Simulation Environment ◽  
Pharyngeal Muscle ◽  
C Elegans

One of the current problems at the interface between neuroscience, biophysics, and computational modeling is the reverse-engineering and reproduction of Caenorhabditis elegans using computer simulation. The aim of our research was to develop the computational models and techniques for solving this problem while participating in the international open science OpenWorm Project. We have suggested models of a typical C. elegans neuron and a pharyngeal muscle cell, which were constructed and optimized using the NEURON simulation environment. The available experimental data about EGL-19 and EXP-2 ion channels allowed the model of a muscle to reproduce the action potential time profile correctly. Also, the model of a neuron reproduces quite accurately the mechanism of neural signal transmission based on passive propagation. We believe our models to be promising for better representing the specifics of various nervous and muscular cell classes when adding the corresponding ion channel models. Moreover, they can be used to construct the networks of such elements.

scholarly journals Genetic dissection of ion currents underlying all-or-none action potentials in C. elegans body-wall muscle cells

2010 ◽  
Vol 589 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Liu ◽  
Q. Ge ◽  
B. Chen ◽  
L. Salkoff ◽  
M. I. Kotlikoff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Action Potentials ◽  
Body Wall ◽  
Muscle Cells ◽  
Body Wall Muscle ◽  
Genetic Dissection ◽  
Ion Currents ◽  
C Elegans

scholarly journals C. elegans enteric motor neurons fire synchronized action potentials underlying the defecation motor program

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingyuan Jiang ◽  
Yifan Su ◽  
Rulin Zhang ◽  
Haiwen Li ◽  
Louis Tao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Motor Neurons ◽  
Action Potentials ◽  
Motor Program ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Neural Imaging ◽  
Negative Spike ◽  
Behavior Tracking

The C. elegans nervous system was thought to be strictly analog, constituted solely by graded neurons. We recently discovered neuronal action potentials in the sensory neuron AWA; however, the extent to which the C. elegans nervous system relies on analog or digital neural signaling and coding is unclear. Here we report that the enteric motor neurons AVL and DVB fire all-or-none calcium-mediated action potentials that play essential roles in the rhythmic defecation behavior in C. elegans. Both AVL and DVB synchronously fire giant action potentials to faithfully execute all-or-none expulsion following the intestinal pacemaker. AVL fires unusual compound action potentials with each positive calcium-mediated spike followed by a potassium-mediated negative spike. The depolarizing calcium spikes in AVL are mediated by a CaV2 calcium channel UNC-2, while the negative potassium spikes are mediated by a repolarization-activated potassium channel EXP-2. Whole-body behavior tracking and simultaneous neural imaging in free-moving animals suggest that action potentials initiated in AVL in the head propagate along its axon to the tail and activate DVB through the INX-1 gap junction. Synchronized action potential spikes between AVL and DVB, as well as the negative spike and long-lasting afterhyperpolarization in AVL, play an important function in executing expulsion behavior. This work provides the first evidence that in addition to sensory coding, C. elegans motor neurons also use digital coding scheme to perform specific functions including long-distance communication and temporal synchronization, suggesting further, unforeseen electrophysiological diversity remains to be discovered in the C. elegans nervous system.

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