Caenorhabditis elegans exhibit a coupling between the defecation motor program and directed locomotion

Distinct motor programs can be coupled to refine the repertoire of behavior dynamics. However, mechanisms underlying such coupling are poorly understood. The defecation motor program (DMP) of C. elegans is composed of a succession of body contraction and expulsion steps, performed repeatedly with a...

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Main Authors:	Nagy, Stanislav, Huang, Yung-Chi, Alkema, Mark J., Biron, David
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Nature Publishing Group 2015
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4657007/

id	pubmed-4657007
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-46570072015-11-30 Caenorhabditis elegans exhibit a coupling between the defecation motor program and directed locomotion Nagy, Stanislav Huang, Yung-Chi Alkema, Mark J. Biron, David Article Distinct motor programs can be coupled to refine the repertoire of behavior dynamics. However, mechanisms underlying such coupling are poorly understood. The defecation motor program (DMP) of C. elegans is composed of a succession of body contraction and expulsion steps, performed repeatedly with a period of 50–60 sec. We show that recurring patterns of directed locomotion are executed in tandem with, co-reset, and co-terminate with the DMP cycle. Calcium waves in the intestine and proton signaling were shown to regulate the DMP. We found that genetic manipulations affecting these calcium dynamics regulated the corresponding patterns of directed locomotion. Moreover, we observed the initiation of a recurring locomotion pattern 10 seconds prior to the posterior body contraction, suggesting that the synchronized motor program may initiate prior to the DMP. This study links two multi-step motor programs executed by C. elegans in synchrony, utilizing non-neuronal tissue to drive directed locomotion. Nature Publishing Group 2015-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC4657007/ /pubmed/26597056 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep17174 Text en Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Nagy, Stanislav Huang, Yung-Chi Alkema, Mark J. Biron, David
spellingShingle	Nagy, Stanislav Huang, Yung-Chi Alkema, Mark J. Biron, David Caenorhabditis elegans exhibit a coupling between the defecation motor program and directed locomotion
author_facet	Nagy, Stanislav Huang, Yung-Chi Alkema, Mark J. Biron, David
author_sort	Nagy, Stanislav
title	Caenorhabditis elegans exhibit a coupling between the defecation motor program and directed locomotion
title_short	Caenorhabditis elegans exhibit a coupling between the defecation motor program and directed locomotion
title_full	Caenorhabditis elegans exhibit a coupling between the defecation motor program and directed locomotion
title_fullStr	Caenorhabditis elegans exhibit a coupling between the defecation motor program and directed locomotion
title_full_unstemmed	Caenorhabditis elegans exhibit a coupling between the defecation motor program and directed locomotion
title_sort	caenorhabditis elegans exhibit a coupling between the defecation motor program and directed locomotion
description	Distinct motor programs can be coupled to refine the repertoire of behavior dynamics. However, mechanisms underlying such coupling are poorly understood. The defecation motor program (DMP) of C. elegans is composed of a succession of body contraction and expulsion steps, performed repeatedly with a period of 50–60 sec. We show that recurring patterns of directed locomotion are executed in tandem with, co-reset, and co-terminate with the DMP cycle. Calcium waves in the intestine and proton signaling were shown to regulate the DMP. We found that genetic manipulations affecting these calcium dynamics regulated the corresponding patterns of directed locomotion. Moreover, we observed the initiation of a recurring locomotion pattern 10 seconds prior to the posterior body contraction, suggesting that the synchronized motor program may initiate prior to the DMP. This study links two multi-step motor programs executed by C. elegans in synchrony, utilizing non-neuronal tissue to drive directed locomotion.
publisher	Nature Publishing Group
publishDate	2015
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4657007/
_version_	1613505085530177536

Caenorhabditis elegans exhibit a coupling between the defecation motor program and directed locomotion

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