Fig. 6: A dopaminergic behavioral circuit is dependent on EGL-43 and FOS-1 expression.
From: An activity-regulated transcriptional program directly drives synaptogenesis
a, Schematic representation of the backing assay. ChR2 was specifically expressed in dopaminergic neurons using the dat-1 promoter. Healthy, fed worms move forward, foraging on a bacterial lawn. On constant excitation by blue light, dopaminergic neurons activate and induce a backing response, followed by a reversal. The time from the onset of the blue light to a backing response was recorded. Wild-type worms perform the backing behavior in under 2 s under our conditions. b, Animals carrying a mutation to enhance FOS-1 binding upstream of the egl-43 locus exhibit a faster backing response than the wild type (n = 20 for both conditions, P = 2.60044 × 10−6). c, Auxin-induced degradation of either EGL-43 or FOS-1 results in a significantly slower backing response. n = 14 for all conditions tested; P = 0.0002 (−auxin versus +auxin for EGL-43), P = 2.52982 × 10−8 (−auxin versus +auxin for FOS-1). For all graphs, medians are represented in thick dashed lines, and quartiles are represented in thin dashed lines. P values were calculated using two-tailed unpaired Student’s t tests.
