Editor's Summary
1 November 2007
Circuit training
The nervous system of the tiny roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans contains just 302 nerve cells with known synaptic connections, yet it performs many functions familiar in more complex organisms. This makes it ideal for neuroscientists looking at how neuronal circuits are organized. Chalasani et al. have dissected the neuronal circuitry that underlies one of the worm's food-seeking behaviours. This circuitry allows odour-sensing neurons to activate or inhibit downstream interneurons that control coherent crawling and turning behaviours. Using a combination of genetics and calcium imaging, the flow of information can be followed from the environment, via sensory neurons to the interneurons controlling chemotaxis and food search. This neuronal circuit shows striking homologies with that used to sense light in the mammalian retina, a notable example of conserved or convergent strategies for information processing.
News and Views: Smell: The worm turns
The worm Caenorhabditis elegans has many advantages as an experimental organism. These have been exploited to investigate how, at a single-neuron level, neural circuits transform sensory signals into behaviour.
Piali Sengupta
doi:10.1038/450035a
Article: Dissecting a circuit for olfactory behaviour in Caenorhabditis elegans
Sreekanth H. Chalasani, Nikos Chronis, Makoto Tsunozaki, Jesse M. Gray, Daniel Ramot, Miriam B. Goodman & Cornelia I. Bargmann
doi:10.1038/nature06292
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,857K) | Supplementary information