DD5-ablation sample video

Processed video showing DD5-ablated animal (with segmentation) freely-moving on a bacterial lawn for 15 minutes

PDB ablations_1 feature files and segmented movies

Processed videos of mock- and PDB-ablated animals (with segmentation) freely-moving on a bacterial lawn for 15 minutes, and Matlab files containing data for features extracted from these videos, for replicate 1 of the PDB-ablation experiment

Mock-ablation (PDB) sample video

Processed video showing mock-ablated animal (with segmentation) freely-moving on a bacterial lawn for 15 minutes

DD3 DD4 ablations raw videos (mock/DD3/DD4)

Raw videos of mock-, DD3- and DD4-ablated animals freely-moving on a bacterial lawn for 15 minutes, for the DD3/DD4-ablation experiment

PDB-ablation sample video 1

Processed video showing PDB-ablated animal (with segmentation) freely-moving on a bacterial lawn for 15 minutes

DD2 DD5 ablations_2 raw videos (mock)

Raw videos of mock-ablated animals freely-moving on a bacterial lawn for 15 minutes for replicate 2 of the DD2/DD5-ablation experiment

PDB ablations_2 raw videos (mock/PDB)

Raw videos of mock- and PDB-ablated animals freely-moving on a bacterial lawn for 15 minutes, for replicate 2 of the PDB-ablation experiment

Molecular/cellular mechanisms for cross-modal plasticity following sensory loss.

<p>(A) Loss of body touch in <i>C</i>. <i>elegans</i> results in reduced neuropeptide secretion from the TRNs, leading to the release from suppression, i.e., strengthening, of the inhibitory glutamatergic synaptic connection between AWC chemosensory neurons and AIY interneurons and thus enhancing the output of the olfactory circuit. Optogenetic activation of the TRNs (red lightning bolt) or insertion of an engineered electrical synapse between AWC and AIY (red dashed line) can counteract these effects. (B) Visual deprivation in rats results in increased serotonin signaling, possibly from the raphe nucleus, increasing extracellular serotonin abundance in layer 2/3 of the barrel cortex, which in turn strengthens the excitatory glutamatergic synaptic connections between the sensory input layer 4 and the cortical output layer 2/3, thus enhancing somatosensory output [<a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002348#pbio.1002348.ref011" target="_blank">11</a>]. (C) Visual or whisker deprivation in mice results in reduced oxytocin secretion from the hypothalamus, which leads to reduced synaptic transmission to somatosensory or visual cortical output layer 2/3, reducing the output [<a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002348#pbio.1002348.ref013" target="_blank">13</a>]. Rectangles represent sensory or sensory input neurons and ovals represent downstream output neurons.</p

Loss of body touch response results in activity-dependent changes in locomotion and chemotaxis.

<p>(A) Percent of withdrawal responses out of five anterior body gentle stimulations of wild-type an Mec mutants. (B) Percent of withdrawal responses out of five gentle nose stimulations of wild type and Mec mutants. Worms defective in sensing body touch also show reduced nose touch responses. (C) Chemotaxis scores of wild type and Mec mutants at varying concentrations of the attractive odorant, Bz. A score of 1 corresponds to perfect attraction; a score of 0 indicates complete indifference. mec-4(u253) mutants outperform wild type at low, 1:10,000, Bz concentrations. (D) Chemotaxis scores of wild type and Mec mutants for 1:10,000 concentrations of AWC-sensed Bz and IAA, and AWA-sensed DA and Py. Chemosensation of AWC-sensed odors is enhanced. Chemosensation of AWA-sensed odors is reduced. (E,F) Reversing frequency off-food (E) and on-food (F) of various Mec mutants. Reversing off-food is increased and on-food is decreased in Mec mutants compared to wild type. (G) Speed off-food and on-food of wild type and Mec mutants. Wild type and Mec mutants exhibit similar slowing on food (2-way ANOVA interaction <i>p</i> = 0.6, main effect of food <i>p</i> < 0.0001). (H) Mec mutant reversing rate off-food immediately or 2 h after artificial stimulation of the TRNs using random blue light flashing, with or without (control) supplemental all-trans retinal (ATR). TRN stimulation reduced the reversing rate of mec-4(u253) mutants towards wild type levels 2 hours later (2-way ANOVA interaction <i>p</i> = 0.014). N2 is the wild type strain. Sample size indicated in each panel; Error bars represent standard errors of the mean (SEMs); *<i>p</i> < 0.05, **<i>p</i> < 0.01, ***<i>p</i> < 0.001 <i>t</i> test with Bonferroni corrections for multiple comparisons where relevant.</p

FLP-20 is involved in TRN neuropeptide signaling modulating locomotion.

<p>(A) <i>flp-20</i> mutants have an increased off-food reversing rate that is smaller than the <i>mec-4</i> increase. <i>flp-20; mec-4</i> double mutants exhibit a similar increase in off-food reversing rate as <i>mec-4</i> single mutants. (B) An additional <i>flp-20</i> allele displays a similar increase in reversing frequency. (C) TRN-specific expression of FLP-20 cDNA restores <i>flp-20</i> reversing rate off-food. (D) TRN-specific expression of FLP-20 cDNA reduces <i>flp-20</i> reversing rate off-food, but not on-food (2-way ANOVA interaction <i>p</i> = 0.0005). (E) Eliminating functional FLP-20 sequence exclusively in the TRNs is sufficient for increasing reversing rate. (F) Overexpression of FLP-20 in the TRNs of <i>mec-4(253)</i> mutants decreases their reversing rate. (G) TRN photo-stimulation has a weakened suppressive effect on the reversing rate of Mec-deficient worms lacking functional FLP-20. (H) Pflp-20::GFP fluorescence intensity, indicating FLP-20 transcription, in <i>mec-4(u253)</i> mutants and following disruption of exocytosis in the TRNs is reduced in ALM, does not substantially vary in PVC, and is also reduced in the ASE neurons (2-way ANOVA interaction <i>p</i> < 0.0001). Sample size indicated in each panel; Error bars represent SEMs; *<i>p</i> < 0.05, **<i>p</i> < 0.01, ***<i>p</i> < 0.001, ****<i>p</i> < 0.0001 <i>t</i> test with Bonferroni corrections for multiple comparisons where relevant.</p