Abstract
Despite their simplicity, longitudinal studies of invertebrate models are rare. We thus sought to characterize behavioral trends of Caenorhabditis elegans, from the mid fourth larval stage through the mid young adult stage. We found that, outside of lethargus, animals exhibited abrupt switching between two distinct behavioral states: active wakefulness and quiet wakefulness. The durations of epochs of active wakefulness exhibited non-Poisson statistics. Increased Gαs signaling stabilized the active wakefulness state before, during and after lethargus. In contrast, decreased Gαs signaling, decreased neuropeptide release, or decreased CREB activity destabilized active wakefulness outside of, but not during, lethargus. Taken together, our findings support a model in which protein kinase A (PKA) stabilizes active wakefulness, at least in part through two of its downstream targets: neuropeptide release and CREB. However, during lethargus, when active wakefulness is strongly suppressed, the native role of PKA signaling in modulating locomotion and quiescence may be minor. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00782.001.
Highlights
The life cycle of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is comprised of the embryonic stage, four larval stages termed L1–L4, and adulthood
We further show that the transitions between behavioral states were regulated by the GSA-1(Gαs) pathway: increased Gαs signaling stabilized the active wakefulness state both within and outside of lethargus, while decreased Gαs signaling destabilized this state, but only outside of lethargus
High resolution tracking of patterns of locomotion and posture on developmental timescales To assay the modulation of behavior during development, we developed PyCelegans: a high-speed, modular image-processing tool for analyzing posture and locomotion of C. elegans on high performance computing resources
Summary
The life cycle of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is comprised of the embryonic stage, four larval stages termed L1–L4, and adulthood. C. elegans larvae are mostly continuously motile, each molt is accompanied by a 2–3 hr period of behavioral quiescence (Singh and Sulston, 1978), referred to as ‘lethargus’. The larval stages can be divided into motile intermolt sub-stages (L1int–L4int) and their corresponding lethargus sub-stages (L1leth-L4leth). Behavior during distinct developmental sub-stages (Singh and Sulston, 1978) has not previously been examined in detail. Both the modulation of body posture and locomotion on developmental timescales remain largely unexplored
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