Caenorhabditis elegans body wall muscles are simple actuators
Caenorhabditis elegans body wall muscles are simple actuators
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DOI：
10.1016/j.biosystems.2008.05.025
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发表时间：
2008-10-01
期刊：
影响因子：
1.6
通讯作者：
Cohen, Netta
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Boyle, Jordan H.;Cohen, Netta
在过去的40年里，动物王国中最简单的神经系统之一--线虫秀丽隐杆线虫的神经系统--引起了越来越多的关注。这个系统是一个密集的协同努力的主题，以了解整个活动物的行为，从下而上和自上而下。C.尤其是秀丽隐杆线虫的运动，已经成为许多模型的主题，但是关于关键的（产生节奏的）要素还没有普遍的一致意见。在本文中，我们调查的运动子系统，即体壁肌肉的一个组成部分的作用，重点是肌间缝隙连接的作用。我们构建了一个详细的电生理模型，这表明这些肌肉的功能，第一近似，仅仅作为执行器，并没有明显的节奏产生的作用。此外，我们表明，在我们的模型肌肉间耦合太弱，有一个显着的电效应。这些结果排除了肌肉作为运动的关键发电机，而是指向神经活动模式。更具体地说，这些结果意味着在unc-9突变体中观察到的运动速度降低可能是由于神经元耦合而不是肌肉间耦合的减少。(C)2008爱思唯尔爱尔兰有限公司保留所有权利。
Over the past four decades, one of the simplest nervous systems across the animal kingdom, that of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, has drawn increasing attention. This system is the subject of an intensive concerted effort to understand the behaviour of an entire living animal, from the bottom up and the top down. C. elegans locomotion, in particular, has been the subject of a number of models, but there is as yet no general agreement about the key (rhythm generating) elements. In this paper we investigate the role of one component of the locomotion subsystem, namely the body wall muscles, with a focus on the role of inter-muscular gap junctions. We construct a detailed electrophysiological model which suggests that these muscles function, to a first approximation, as mere actuators and have no obvious rhythm generating role. Furthermore, we show that within our model inter-muscular coupling is too weak to have a significant electrical effect. These results rule out muscles as key generators of locomotion, pointing instead to neural activity patterns. More specifically, the results imply that the reduced locomotion velocity observed in unc-9 mutants is likely to be due to reduced neuronal rather than inter-muscular coupling. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.