Eduard Bokman, Christian O Pritz, Rotem Ruach, Eyal Itskovits, Hadar Sharvit, Alon Zaslaver
{"title":"Intricate response dynamics enhances stimulus discrimination in the resource-limited C. elegans chemosensory system.","authors":"Eduard Bokman, Christian O Pritz, Rotem Ruach, Eyal Itskovits, Hadar Sharvit, Alon Zaslaver","doi":"10.1186/s12915-024-01977-z","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Sensory systems evolved intricate designs to accurately encode perplexing environments. However, this encoding task may become particularly challenging for animals harboring a small number of sensory neurons. Here, we studied how the compact resource-limited chemosensory system of Caenorhabditis elegans uniquely encodes a range of chemical stimuli.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We find that each stimulus is encoded using a small and unique subset of neurons, where only a portion of the encoding neurons sense the stimulus directly, and the rest are recruited via inter-neuronal communication. Furthermore, while most neurons show stereotypical response dynamics, some neurons exhibit versatile dynamics that are either stimulus specific or network-activity dependent. Notably, it is the collective dynamics of all responding neurons which provides valuable information that ultimately enhances stimulus identification, particularly when required to discriminate between closely related stimuli.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Together, these findings demonstrate how a compact and resource-limited chemosensory system can efficiently encode and discriminate a diverse range of chemical stimuli.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11328493/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"BMC Biology","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-024-01977-z","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Sensory systems evolved intricate designs to accurately encode perplexing environments. However, this encoding task may become particularly challenging for animals harboring a small number of sensory neurons. Here, we studied how the compact resource-limited chemosensory system of Caenorhabditis elegans uniquely encodes a range of chemical stimuli.
Results: We find that each stimulus is encoded using a small and unique subset of neurons, where only a portion of the encoding neurons sense the stimulus directly, and the rest are recruited via inter-neuronal communication. Furthermore, while most neurons show stereotypical response dynamics, some neurons exhibit versatile dynamics that are either stimulus specific or network-activity dependent. Notably, it is the collective dynamics of all responding neurons which provides valuable information that ultimately enhances stimulus identification, particularly when required to discriminate between closely related stimuli.
Conclusions: Together, these findings demonstrate how a compact and resource-limited chemosensory system can efficiently encode and discriminate a diverse range of chemical stimuli.
期刊介绍:
BMC Biology is a broad scope journal covering all areas of biology. Our content includes research articles, new methods and tools. BMC Biology also publishes reviews, Q&A, and commentaries.