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Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 14, 1953-1962, Copyright © 1994 by Society for Neuroscience
Regulation of a periodic motor program in C. elegans
DW Liu and JH Thomas
University of Washington, Department of Genetics, Seattle 98195.
A three-part motor program mediates a defecation every 45 sec in well- fed
wild-type Caenorhabditis elegans. Individual worms maintain this 45 sec
rhythm with an SD of about 3 sec. We present evidence that the defecation
cycle is controlled by an endogenous clock, most likely a neuronal pattern
generator. The phase of the behavioral rhythm can be reset like pattern
generators in other animals. The rhythm was reset by stimulating a
well-characterized neuronal circuit mediating response to light touch.
Also, animals that spontaneously stopped feeding interrupted their
defecation rhythms. When they resumed feeding these animals reactivated the
motor program in phase with the previously established rhythm, indicating
that an endogenous clock continues to run even when the behavior is not
expressed. Control of the defecation rhythm is independent of expression of
the motor program. Most previously isolated mutations that affect the motor
program (Thomas, 1990) do not alter the rhythm of the behavior; the motor
steps themselves are defective but not the timing of their activation.
Laser kills of identified motor neurons that affect particular parts of the
motor program also did not change the defecation rhythm. Another sensory
stimulus, food, strongly modulates defecation behavior: animals away from
food rarely activated the motor program, and food dilution resulted in a
graded lengthening of the cycle period. To elucidate further the
relationship between feeding and defecation rhythms we studied a mutation,
dec-8(sa200), that caused worms to continue to activate the motor program
in the absence of food. The mutant did not require the presence of food to
activate the motor program, although food made the rhythm more precise. In
the presence of food, dec- 8(sa200) animals exhibited tandem activations of
the defecation motor program; the principal activation was followed by a
more variable second activation. Further experiments suggested that the
tandem activations of the motor program are not due to the activity of
multiple oscillators.
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