The structure of the ventral nerve cord of Caenorhabditis elegans

摘要: The nervous system of Caenorhabditis elegans is arranged as a series fibre bundles which run along internal hypodermal ridges. Most the sensory integration takes place in ring nerve fibres wrapped round pharynx head. body muscles head are innervated by motor neurones this while those lower part set longitudinal bundle joins ring, ventral cord. These can be put into five classes on basis their morphology and synaptic input. At any one point cord only member from each class has neuromuscular junctions. Members given regular linear sequence have non-overlapping fields activity, transition between adjacent being sharp well defined. form gap junctions with neighbouring members same but never to another class. Three neurone receive input interneurones coming ring. turn grouped four three receives its unique combination interneurone classes. possible developmental functional significance these observations discussed.