From modes to movement in the behavior of C. elegans

Organisms move through the world by changing their shape, and here we explore the mapping from shape space to movements in the nematode C. elegans as it crawls on a planar agar surface. We characterize the statistics of the trajectories through the correlation functions of the orientation angular velocity, orientation angle and the mean-squared displacement, and we find that the loss of orientational memory has significant contributions from both abrupt, large amplitude turning events and the continuous dynamics between these events. Further, we demonstrate long-time persistence of orientational memory in the intervals between abrupt turns. Building on recent work demonstrating that C. elegans movements are restricted to a low-dimensional shape space, we construct a map from the dynamics in this shape space to the trajectory of the worm along the agar. We use this connection to illustrate that changes in the continuous dynamics reveal subtle differences in movement strategy that occur among mutants defective in two classes of dopamine receptors

Multiparameter behavioral profiling reveals distinct thermal response regimes in Caenorhabditis elegans.

BackgroundResponding to noxious stimuli by invoking an appropriate escape response is critical for survival of an organism. The sensations of small and large changes in temperature in most organisms have been studied separately in the context of thermotaxis and nociception, respectively. Here we use the nematode C. elegans to address the neurogenetic basis of responses to thermal stimuli over a broad range of intensities.ResultsC. elegans responds to aversive temperature by eliciting a stereotypical behavioral sequence. Upon sensation of the noxious stimulus, it moves backwards, turns and resumes forward movement in a new direction. In order to study the response of C. elegans to a broad range of noxious thermal stimuli, we developed a novel assay that allows simultaneous characterization of multiple aspects of escape behavior elicited by thermal pulses of increasing amplitudes. We exposed the laboratory strain N2, as well as 47 strains with defects in various aspects of nervous system function, to thermal pulses ranging from ΔT = 0.4°C to 9.1°C and recorded the resulting behavioral profiles.ConclusionsThrough analysis of the multidimensional behavioral profiles, we found that the combinations of molecules shaping avoidance responses to a given thermal pulse are unique. At different intensities of aversive thermal stimuli, these distinct combinations of molecules converge onto qualitatively similar stereotyped behavioral sequences

Genetics of Intraspecies Variation in Avoidance Behavior Induced by a Thermal Stimulus in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Individuals within a species vary in their responses to a wide range of stimuli, partly as a result of differences in their genetic makeup. Relatively little is known about the genetic and neuronal mechanisms contributing to diversity of behavior in natural populations. By studying intraspecies variation in innate avoidance behavior to thermal stimuli in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, we uncovered genetic principles of how different components of a behavioral response can be altered in nature to generate behavioral diversity. Using a thermal pulse assay, we uncovered heritable variation in responses to a transient temperature increase. Quantitative trait locus mapping revealed that separate components of this response were controlled by distinct genomic loci. The loci we identified contributed to variation in components of thermal pulse avoidance behavior in an additive fashion. Our results show that the escape behavior induced by thermal stimuli is composed of simpler behavioral components that are influenced by at least six distinct genetic loci. The loci that decouple components of the escape behavior reveal a genetic system that allows independent modification of behavioral parameters. Our work sets the foundation for future studies of evolution of innate behaviors at the molecular and neuronal level

Mechanism of bidirectional thermotaxis in Escherichia coli.

In bacteria various tactic responses are mediated by the same cellular pathway, but sensing of physical stimuli remains poorly understood. Here, we combine an in-vivo analysis of the pathway activity with a microfluidic taxis assay and mathematical modeling to investigate the thermotactic response of Escherichia coli. We show that in the absence of chemical attractants E. coli exhibits a steady thermophilic response, the magnitude of which decreases at higher temperatures. Adaptation of wild-type cells to high levels of chemoattractants sensed by only one of the major chemoreceptors leads to inversion of the thermotactic response at intermediate temperatures and bidirectional cell accumulation in a thermal gradient. A mathematical model can explain this behavior based on the saturation-dependent kinetics of adaptive receptor methylation. Lastly, we find that the preferred accumulation temperature corresponds to optimal growth in the presence of the chemoattractant serine, pointing to a physiological relevance of the observed thermotactic behavior

Direct Measurements of Drag Forces in C. elegans Crawling Locomotion

AbstractWith a simple and versatile microcantilever-based force measurement technique, we have probed the drag forces involved in Caenorhabditis elegans locomotion. As a worm crawls on an agar surface, we found that substrate viscoelasticity introduces nonlinearities in the force-velocity relationships, yielding nonconstant drag coefficients that are not captured by original resistive force theory. A major contributing factor to these nonlinearities is the formation of a shallow groove on the agar surface. We measured both the adhesion forces that cause the worm’s body to settle into the agar and the resulting dynamics of groove formation. Furthermore, we quantified the locomotive forces produced by C. elegans undulatory motions on a wet viscoelastic agar surface. We show that an extension of resistive force theory is able to use the dynamics of a nematode’s body shape along with the measured drag coefficients to predict the forces generated by a crawling nematode

A Comprehensive Genetic Characterization of Bacterial Motility

We have developed a powerful experimental framework that combines competitive selection and microarray-based genetic footprinting to comprehensively reveal the genetic basis of bacterial behaviors. Application of this method to Escherichia coli motility identifies 95% of the known flagellar and chemotaxis genes, and reveals three dozen novel loci that, to varying degrees and through diverse mechanisms, affect motility. To probe the network context in which these genes function, we developed a method that uncovers genome-wide epistatic interactions through comprehensive analyses of double-mutant phenotypes. This allows us to place the novel genes within the context of signaling and regulatory networks, including the Rcs phosphorelay pathway and the cyclic di-GMP second-messenger system. This unifying framework enables sensitive and comprehensive genetic characterization of complex behaviors across the microbial biosphere