Figure 3: Quiescence induced by nlp-22 OE resembles lethargus quiescence.
From: The neuropeptide NLP-22 regulates a sleep-like state in Caenorhabditis elegans
(a) Animals that overexpress nlp-22 (strain: NQ251) are less responsive to chemical (1-octanol) and optical (blue light) stimulation than control animals that overexpress GFP (strain: TJ375) (**P<0.0001, Student’s two-tailed t-test, N≥20; Error bars represent s.e.m.). (b) Overexpressing nlp-22 via a mild heat shock, such that full quiescence is not induced, results in increased backwards movement. White, dark grey and light grey denote forwards, backwards and no movement, respectively. The average fraction of time spent moving forwards or moving backwards in a 120s window for nlp-22 overexpressing animals is significantly different from WT worms (*P<0.001. **P<0.0001, Student’s two-tailed t-test, N=20). In addition to the bias for backwards motion, nlp-22 overexpressing animals also moved significantly less than WT animals (**P<0.0001, Student’s two-tailed t-test, N=20).
