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date: 11 February 2025

Genetics of C. elegans Behaviorlocked

Genetics of C. elegans Behaviorlocked

  • Denise S. Walker, Denise S. WalkerMedical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge
  • Yee Lian ChewYee Lian ChewFlinders University
  • , and William R. SchaferWilliam R. SchaferMedical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge

Summary

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is among the most intensely studied animals in modern experimental biology. Its amenability to classical and molecular genetics, compact nervous system, and transparency to optogenetic recording and manipulation have led to its being widely used to investigate how individual gene products act in the context of neuronal circuits to generate behavior. C. elegans was the first animal neuronal connectome to be characterized at the level of individual neurons and synapses, and the wiring organization shows significant parallels with the micro- and macro-level structures of more complex brains. It uses a wide array of sensory cues (mechanical, gustatory, olfactory, and thermal), with impressive precision, to determine an appropriate behavioral response, in the form of changes in locomotion and other motor outputs. The small number of neurons (302) and their highly stereotyped morphology have enabled the interrogation of the precise function of individual neurons, in terms of both the genes that they express and the behaviors in which they function. Approximately one third are sensory neurons, located around the mouth and in the tail, as well as along the length of the body. A complex network of interneurons connects these to the motor neurons, the majority of which output to the body wall muscles, arranged along the body, determining the changes in direction and speed of locomotion required for behaviors such as taxiing up gradients of food-related cues or avoiding noxious cues. The ability to combine information about the precise function of individual neurons with circuit knowledge, genetics, and optogenetic approaches has been critical in advancing the molecular and circuit-level understanding of the mechanisms underlying C. elegans’s behavior. In common with that of other animals, C. elegans’s behavior is subject to change in response to prior experience, and this same complement of experimental approaches has provided significant insight into how plasticity and changes in behavioral states are achieved.

Subjects

  • Molecular and Cellular Systems
  • Sensory Systems
  • Invertebrate Neuroscience

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