Functional diversity of excitatory commissural interneurons in adult zebrafish
Open accessAbstract
Flexibility in the bilateral coordination of muscle contraction underpins variable locomotor movements or gaits. While the locomotor rhythm is generated by ipsilateral excitatory interneurons, less is known about the commissural excitatory interneurons. Here we examined how the activity of the V0v interneurons – an important commissural neuronal class – varies with the locomotor speed in adult zebrafish. Although V0v interneurons are molecularly homogenous, their activity pattern during locomotion is not uniform. They consist of two distinct types dependent on whether they display rhythmicity or not during locomotion. The rhythmic V0v interneurons were further subdivided into three sub-classes engaged sequentially, first at slow then intermediate and finally fast locomotor speeds. Their order of recruitment is defined by scaling their synaptic current with their input resistance. Thus we uncover, in an adult vertebrate, a novel organizational principle for a key class of commissural interneurons and their recruitment pattern as a function of locomotor speed.
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In adult zebrafish, V0v commissural excitatory neurons have bifurcating axons with shorter ascending branches and longer descending branches.
“in adult zebrafish, V0v commissural excitatory neurons have been shown to have bifurcating axons with shorter ascending branches and longer descending branches (Björnfors and El Manira, 2016).”
From Modeling spinal locomotor circuits for movements in developing zebrafish (2021) · cites this paper as Björnfors and El Manira, 2016
The Results section, “Morphological diversity of V0v interneurons” (page unavailable), reports bifurcating commissural V0v neurons in adult zebrafish, with projections extending in both ascending and descending directions. It does not say that their ascending branches are shorter than their descending branches; it also describes descending, ascending, and local neurons, rather than bifurcation as a feature of all V0v neurons. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredCommissural excitation is necessary to repeatedly activate the silent contralateral side during ongoing swimming to ensure successive left-right alternating tail beats and longer swim episodes.
“These simulations suggest that commissural excitation is necessary to repeatedly activate the silent contralateral side during ongoing swimming to ensure successive left-right alternating tail beats and longer swim episodes (Björnfors and El Manira, 2016; Saint-Amant, 2010).”
From Modeling spinal locomotor circuits for movements in developing zebrafish (2021) · cites this paper as Björnfors and El Manira, 2016
The Introduction (page unavailable) describes commissural interneurons as important for left-right coordination during swimming, and the Results report rhythmic activity in excitatory V0v interneurons during swim episodes. The paper does not establish that commissural excitation is necessary to repeatedly activate a silent contralateral side or to produce longer swim episodes; the cited sentence frames those as conclusions from the citing authors’ simulations. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredDifferent subgroups of V0v neurons are probably involved in coiling versus swimming.
“While V0v neurons are the likely candidate to mediate the activation of contralateral movements, different subgroups of V0v neurons are probably involved in coiling versus swimming (Björnfors and El Manira, 2016; Jay and McLean, 2019) considering the two different targets of contralateral excitation involved, namely ICs in coiling and V2as in swimming.”
From Modeling spinal locomotor circuits for movements in developing zebrafish (2021) · cites this paper as Björnfors and El Manira, 2016
The Introduction and Discussion (‘The functional role of V0v interneurons during locomotion’; page unavailable) identify distinct V0v subgroups recruited at slow, intermediate, and fast swimming speeds. The paper does not address coiling or establish that different subgroups participate in coiling versus swimming. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredSubgroups for vigor seem to be present within the V2a and V0v populations.
“Subgroups for vigor seem to be present within the V2a (Menelaou and McLean, 2019; Song et al., 2018) and V0v (Björnfors and El Manira, 2016; Jay and McLean, 2019; McLean et al., 2007) populations.”
From Modeling spinal locomotor circuits for movements in developing zebrafish (2021) · cites this paper as Björnfors and El Manira, 2016
Swim frequency modules likely include commissural excitatory V0v INs and commissural inhibitory INs belonging to either the dI6 or V0d populations.
“Swim frequency modules likely include commissural excitatory V0v INs (Björnfors and El Manira, 2016; McLean et al., 2008) and commissural inhibitory INs belonging to either the dI6 or V0d populations (Satou et al., 2020).”
From Modeling spinal locomotor circuits for movements in developing zebrafish (2021) · cites this paper as Björnfors and El Manira, 2016
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Cites
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Sorted by citations
Current principles of motor control, with special reference to vertebrate locomotion
Grillner, S., & El Manira, A. (2020) · Physiological Reviews · doi:10.1152/physrev.00015.2019 · Cited by 560 · see citing works
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Modeling spinal locomotor circuits for movements in developing zebrafish
Roussel, Y., Gaudreau, S. F., Kacer, E. R., Sengupta, M., & Bui, T. V. (2021) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.67453 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
“Incorporating spinal neurons that integrate sensory information (Liu and Hale, 2017) provided by peripherally located and spinally located sensory neurons (Böhm et al., 2016; Picton et al., 2021) will provide a more accurate representation of swimming control at the level of the spinal cord.”
BackgroundComputational modeling of speed microcircuits in larval zebrafish spinal cord with <i>Sili</i> Fish
Topcu, E., & Bui, T. V. (2025) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00393.2024
- Authors
- Björnfors, E. R., & El Manira, A.
- Affiliations
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
- Venue
- eLife
- Publisher
- eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
- Published
- 2016-08-25
- Volume
- 5
- ISSN
- 2050-084X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5039025
- OpenAlex
- W2516102782
- Cited by
- 52
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 3.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- eLife (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Karolinska Institutet
- Swedish Brain Foundation
- Swedish Research Council
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Zebrafish Biomedical Research Applications
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
- Keywords
- commissural interneurons, locomotion speed, locomotor rhythm, bilateral coordination, interneuron subtypes, synaptic currents, input resistance, zebrafish, spinal cord
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