title: A cellular and regulatory map of the cholinergic nervous system of C. elegans.
abstract: Nervous system maps are of critical importance for understanding how nervous systems develop and function. We systematically map here all cholinergic neuron types in the male and hermaphrodite C. elegans nervous system. We find that acetylcholine (ACh) is the most broadly used neurotransmitter and we analyze its usage relative to other neurotransmitters within the context of the entire connectome and within specific network motifs embedded in the connectome. We reveal several dynamic aspects of cholinergic neurotransmitter identity, including a sexually dimorphic glutamatergic to cholinergic neurotransmitter switch in a sex-shared interneuron. An expression pattern analysis of ACh-gated anion channels furthermore suggests that ACh may also operate very broadly as an inhibitory neurotransmitter. As a first application of this comprehensive neurotransmitter map, we identify transcriptional regulatory mechanisms that control cholinergic neurotransmitter identity and cholinergic circuit assembly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, United States.|Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, United States.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University, New York, United States.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, United States.|Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, United States.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University, New York, United States.
authors.forename: Paschalis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kratsios
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, United States.|Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, United States.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University, New York, United States.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Serrano-Saiz
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Hila
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sheftel
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Avi E
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4479-3423
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Mayo
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, United States.
authors.forename: David H
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8459-9820
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.affiliation: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: John G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: White
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, United States.
authors.forename: Brigitte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: LeBoeuf
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, United States.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Texas A&M University, College Station, United States.
authors.forename: L Rene
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Uri
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Alon
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, United States.|Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, United States.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University, New York, United States.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7634-2854
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hobert
mesh_terms: D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D018678:Cholinergic Agents / Q000378:metabolism; D002799:Cholinergic Fibers; D063132:Connectome; D005260:Female; D007395:Interneurons; D008297:Male; D009420:Nervous System / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D018678:Cholinergic Agents; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents; D000109:Acetylcholine
keywords: <i>c. elegans</i>; neuronal identity; neuroscience; neurotransmitter; transcriptional regulation