The DOI matches its Crossref record; 31 of the 31 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Functional asymmetry in Caenorhabditis elegans taste neurons and its computational role in chemotaxis
Open accessAbstract
Chemotaxis in Caenorhabditis elegans, like chemotaxis in bacteria, involves a random walk biased by the time derivative of attractant concentration, but how the derivative is computed is unknown. Laser ablations have shown that the strongest deficits in chemotaxis to salts are obtained when the ASE chemosensory neurons (ASEL and ASER) are ablated, indicating that this pair has a dominant role. Although these neurons are left–right homologues anatomically, they exhibit marked asymmetries in gene expression and ion preference. Here, using optical recordings of calcium concentration in ASE neurons in intact animals, we demonstrate an additional asymmetry: ASEL is an ON-cell, stimulated by increases in NaCl concentration, whereas ASER is an OFF-cell, stimulated by decreases in NaCl concentration. Both responses are reliable yet transient, indicating that ASE neurons report changes in concentration rather than absolute levels. Recordings from synaptic and sensory transduction mutants show that the ON–OFF asymmetry is the result of intrinsic differences between ASE neurons. Unilateral activation experiments indicate that the asymmetry extends to the level of behavioural output: ASEL lengthens bouts of forward locomotion (runs) whereas ASER promotes direction changes (turns). Notably, the input and output asymmetries of ASE neurons are precisely those of a simple yet novel neuronal motif for computing the time derivative of chemosensory information, which is the fundamental computation of C. elegans chemotaxis. Evidence for ON and OFF cells in other chemosensory networks suggests that this motif may be common in animals that navigate by taste and smell.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“This is similar to what has been observed in ASE [69].”
From Connecting a Connectome to Behavior: An Ensemble of Neuroanatomical Models of C. elegans Klinotaxis (2013) · cites this paper as [69]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Changes in salt concentration were encoded by ON and OFF chemosensory cells [69] using an instantaneous function of a derivative operator applied to the recent history of attractant concentration [94]:”
From Connecting a Connectome to Behavior: An Ensemble of Neuroanatomical Models of C. elegans Klinotaxis (2013) · cites this paper as [69]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Fluorescent indicators for Ca2+based on green fluorescent proteins and calmodulin
Miyawaki, A., Llopis, J. L., Heim, R., McCaffery, J. M., Adams, J. A., Ikura, M., & Tsien, R. Y. (1997) · Nature · doi:10.1038/42264 · Cited by 3,250
A circuit for navigation in Caenorhabditis elegans
Gray, J. M., Hill, J. J., & Bargmann, C. I. (2005) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0409009101 · Cited by 811
Bargmann, C. I., & Horvitz, H. R. (1991) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/0896-6273(91)90276-6 · Cited by 740
Odor Coding in the Drosophila Antenna
de Bruyne, M., Foster, K., & Carlson, J. R. (2001) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/s0896-6273(01)00289-6 · Cited by 732
Dissecting a circuit for olfactory behaviour in Caenorhabditis elegans
Chalasani, S. H., Chronis, N., Tsunozaki, M., Gray, J. M., Ramot, D., Goodman, M. B., & Bargmann, C. I. (2007) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature06292 · Cited by 630
UNC-13 is required for synaptic vesicle fusion in C. elegans
Richmond, J. E., Davis, W. S., & Jørgensen, E. M. (1999) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/14755 · Cited by 617
The Fundamental Role of Pirouettes in Caenorhabditis elegans Chemotaxis
Pierce-Shimomura, J. T., Morse, T. M., & Lockery, S. R. (1999) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.19-21-09557.1999 · Cited by 536
Self-citationTemporal comparisons in bacterial chemotaxis.
Segall, J. E., Block, S. M., & Berg, H. C. (1986) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.83.23.8987 · Cited by 497
Tobin, D. M., Madsen, D. M., Kahn-Kirby, A. H., Peckol, E. L., Moulder, G. L., Barstead, R. J., Maricq, A. V., & Bargmann, C. I. (2002) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/s0896-6273(02)00757-2 · Cited by 455
Komatsu, H., Mori, I., Rhee, J.-S., Akaike, N., & Ohshima, Y. (1996) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80202-0 · Cited by 445
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Winer, B. J., Brown, D. R. & Michels, K. M. Statistica Principles in Experimental Design 3rd ed. 354–358 (McGraw-Hill, Boston, 1991)
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Brain Lateralization: A Comparative Perspective.
Güntürkün, O., Ströckens, F., & Ocklenburg, S. (2020) · Physiological Reviews · doi:10.1152/physrev.00006.2019 · Cited by 412
A hub-and-spoke circuit drives pheromone attraction and social behaviour in C. elegans
Macosko, E. Z., Pokala, N., Feinberg, E. H., Chalasani, S. H., Butcher, R. A., Clardy, J., & Bargmann, C. I. (2009) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature07886 · Cited by 475
Left–right asymmetries of behaviour and nervous system in invertebrates
Frasnelli, E., Vallortígara, G., & Rogers, L. J. (2012) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.02.006 · Cited by 351
NeuroPAL: A Multicolor Atlas for Whole-Brain Neuronal Identification in C. elegans
Yemini, E., Lin, A., Nejatbakhsh, A., Varol, E., Sun, R., Mena, G. E., Samuel, A. D. T., Paninski, L., Venkatachalam, V., & Hobert, O. (2020) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2020.12.012 · Cited by 310
Neurons Detect Increases and Decreases in Oxygen Levels Using Distinct Guanylate Cyclases
Zimmer, M., Gray, J. M., Pokala, N., Chang, A. J., Karow, D. S., Marletta, M. A., Hudson, M. L., Morton, D. B., Chronis, N., & Bargmann, C. I. (2009) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2009.02.013 · Cited by 285
Metadata
- Authors
- Suzuki, H., Thiele, T. R., Faumont, S., Ezcurra, M., Lockery, S. R., & Schafer, W. R.
- Affiliations
- University of California San Diego (US)
- University of Oregon (US)
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Lockery, Shawn R.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2008-07
- Volume
- 454
- Issue
- 7200
- Pages
- 114-117
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- PMC
- PMC2984562
- OpenAlex
- W2003026101
- Semantic Scholar
- 3c75c57d74fd5e24be78ea6c1d61e14ec4c6194f
- Cited by
- 256
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 7.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R21MH112105, MH051383, R29MH051383, R01MH051383)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA016445, DA016445)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Ion Channels and Receptors
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Aging › Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
- Keywords
- Caenorhabditis elegans, chemotaxis, salty taste, ASER, forward locomotion, turning behavior, calcium imaging, chemotaxis mutants, bilateral asymmetry, retinal organization
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Bacterial Proteins, Chemoreceptor Cells, Chemotaxis, Mutation, Neurons, Afferent, Sodium Chloride, Synapses, Taste, Signal Transduction, Caenorhabditis elegans
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
