title: An extrasynaptic GABAergic signal modulates a pattern of forward movement in Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: As a common neurotransmitter in the nervous system, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) modulates locomotory patterns in both vertebrates and invertebrates. However, the signaling mechanisms underlying the behavioral effects of GABAergic modulation are not completely understood. Here, we demonstrate that a GABAergic signal in C. elegans modulates the amplitude of undulatory head bending through extrasynaptic neurotransmission and conserved metabotropic receptors. We show that the GABAergic RME head motor neurons generate undulatory activity patterns that correlate with head bending and the activity of RME causally links with head bending amplitude. The undulatory activity of RME is regulated by a pair of cholinergic head motor neurons SMD, which facilitate head bending, and inhibits SMD to limit head bending. The extrasynaptic neurotransmission between SMD and RME provides a gain control system to set head bending amplitude to a value correlated with optimal efficiency of forward movement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.|Department of Physics, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.|CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Quan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.
authors.forename: He
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.
authors.forename: Connie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.
authors.forename: Yuqi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.
authors.forename: Gareth
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.affiliation: Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Taizo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawano
authors.affiliation: Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Tianqi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.
authors.forename: Aravinthan Dt
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Samuel
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7631-858X
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000502:physiology*; D059329:Cholinergic Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D018682:GABA Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D059330:GABAergic Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D008124:Locomotion; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D018094:Receptors, Metabotropic Glutamate / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D018682:GABA Agents; D018094:Receptors, Metabotropic Glutamate
keywords: C. elegans; GABAergic neuromodulation; causal role of GABAergic signaling in behavior; extrasynaptic neurotransmission; neuroscience