Fig. 5: The D-AVA circuit enhances chemotaxis toward diacetyl.
From: GABAergic motor neurons bias locomotor decision-making in C. elegans
a A simplified wiring diagram for diacetyl chemotaxis. b Diacetyl caused inward current in VD5 and depolarization of VD5. Compared with Pre-diacetyl, p = 0.024 charge transfer, and 0.000 Vm. c Diacetyl caused outward current in AVA and hyperpolarization of AVA in wild-type (wt) but not AVA-targeted unc-49 RNAi strain. Compared with wt, p = 0.000 charge transfer, and 0.003 hyperpolarization. d AVA-targeted unc-49 RNAi reduced diacetyl chemotaxis response. Left: diagram showing the chemotaxis assay. At the beginning of each assay, a drop of diacetyl and NaN3 mixture and a drop of diacetyl solvent and NaN3 mixture were spotted on opposite sides of a nematode culture plate (6-cm diameter), and 10–15 worms were placed in the middle of the plate. Chemotaxis index was calculated as shown. Right: diacetyl concentration and chemotaxis index curves of wt and AVA-targeted unc-49 RNAi. Compared with wt, p = 0.043, 0.000, 0.023, and 0.839 at the four increasing glycerol concentrations, respectively. In b and c, the horizontal gray lines indicate the times of diacetyl application. Diacetyl (1:1000 dilution) was applied to the vicinity of the nose through a puffing pipette. Statistically significant differences from pre-diacetyl (b), wt (c), and wt at identical diacetyl concentrations (d) are indicated by asterisks indicate statistically significant difference (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001) compared with pre-diacetyl or wt based on either paired two-sided t-test (b) or unpaired two-sided t-test (c, d). The numbers inside brackets indicate sample size (n). n = numbers of independently recorded cells in b and c, but numbers of individual worms in d. Data are presented as mean values ± SEM. Source data are provided as a Source data file.
