C. elegansAttraction Learning in casy‐1Mutants

Abstract

C. eleganshave a simple nervous system with approximately 300 neurons and exhibit well‐documented learning‐specific behaviors. Several genetic mutations, such as in the casy‐1 genes, have been shown to disrupt these learning behaviors in C. elegans. The casy‐1 gene encodes a calcium‐binding protein that is important for synapse regulation, and has shown deficits in learning behaviors. While casy‐1mutant C. eleganshave specifically shown deficits in aversion learning, their attraction learning is not well characterized. Here, we examined the effects of casy‐1 mutation on attraction learning in C. elegans. To do so, we have quantified C. elegans locomotor behaviors such as reversal frequency, run length, and pause frequency in wild‐type and casy‐1 mutant C. elegansin the context of a salt chemotaxis learning assay. This work helps to elucidate the effect of casy‐1on learning behaviors, which is particularly relevant as this gene is an ortholog of mammalian calsyntenins.