Joint analysis between molecular and neuronal bases concerned with development and learning behaviors in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

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The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is one of ideal model organisms for neurogenetic and behavioral genetic researches, because the structure of its simple nervous system with 302 neurons is well-described and so much genetic information is available. The functions of sensory neurons and the molecular mechanisms of sensory transduction have been elucidated by genetic and behavioral studies. Although the behaviors of animals are predominated by molecular bases such as gene, they are directly regulated by neuronal bases. On the other hand, the knowledge, which is investigated neuronal bases in the nematode, is extremely little, because of difficulty of methodological technique due to small body length of the nematodes. In the present study, I tried to measure the neuronal activity in the nematodes in order to clarify the neuronal bases of learning behaviors and developmental changes in neuronal system.