Poster Session 2 - B4
1,2Jun Meng, 2Wesley Hung, 3Sonia El Mouridi, 3Marine Mercier, 3Thomas Boulin, 4Shangbang Gao, 1,2Mei Zhen
1 Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; 2 Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada; 3 Institut Neuro MyoGène, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France; 4 Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of the Ministry of Education, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
Resting membrane potential (RMP) is the intrinsic determinant of cell excitability. Sodium and potassium leak channels that conduct the background sodium and potassium currents establish the RMP of individual neurons, but their effect on the physiological property and functional output in the context of intact neural circuits is poorly understood. In the C. elegans neural circuit, the descending interneurons AVA hold an unusually high RMP of ~ -25mV. Such an unusual RMP is established by a sodium leak channel NCA and at least one potassium leak channel TWK-40. An endogenous and cell-specific increase and decrease of AVA’s RMP lead to increase and decrease of C. elegans’ overall motor activity, respectively. AVA, among the first and most extensively examined C. elegans neurons, have been considered as the premotor interneurons of a sub-motor circuit dedicated to reversal movements. We will present and discuss a new circuit model that explains their central role in the C. elegans neural circuit and motor behaviors.