TY - JOUR
T1 - Neurobiology of caenorhabditis elegans locomotion
T2 - Where do we stand?
AU - Gjorgjieva, Julijana
AU - Biron, David
AU - Haspel, Gal
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2014/6
Y1 - 2014/6
N2 - Animals use a nervous system for locomotion in some stage of their life cycle. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a major animal model for almost all fields of experimental biology, has long been used for detailed studies of genetic and physiological locomotion mechanisms. Of its 959 somatic cells, 302 are neurons that are identifiable by lineage, location, morphology, and neurochemistry in every adult hermaphrodite. Of those, 75 motoneurons innervate body wall muscles that provide the thrust during locomotion. In this Overview, we concentrate on the generation of either forward- or backward-directed motion during crawling and swimming. We describe locomotion behavior, the parts constituting the locomotion system, and the relevant neuronal connectivity. Because it is not yet fully understood how these components combine to generate locomotion, we discuss competing hypotheses and models.
AB - Animals use a nervous system for locomotion in some stage of their life cycle. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a major animal model for almost all fields of experimental biology, has long been used for detailed studies of genetic and physiological locomotion mechanisms. Of its 959 somatic cells, 302 are neurons that are identifiable by lineage, location, morphology, and neurochemistry in every adult hermaphrodite. Of those, 75 motoneurons innervate body wall muscles that provide the thrust during locomotion. In this Overview, we concentrate on the generation of either forward- or backward-directed motion during crawling and swimming. We describe locomotion behavior, the parts constituting the locomotion system, and the relevant neuronal connectivity. Because it is not yet fully understood how these components combine to generate locomotion, we discuss competing hypotheses and models.
KW - Animal behavior
KW - Caenorhabditis elegans
KW - Locomotion
KW - Neurobiology
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U2 - 10.1093/biosci/biu058
DO - 10.1093/biosci/biu058
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84901978908
VL - 64
SP - 476
EP - 486
JO - BioScience
JF - BioScience
SN - 0006-3568
IS - 6
ER -