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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170105212817.htm
The microscopic Caenorhabditis elegans worm may seem like an odd source of insight into human brain development. With only 302 neurons to humans' almost 100 billion, C. elegans is a vastly simpler organism but its basic neurological circuitry has many similarities to ours. And, since scientists have already mapped the adult roundworms' neurons anatomically and functionally, they can easily perform experiments and trace neural circuits in C. elegans tasks that are not possible in humans, yielding valuable information about both species.
For instance, both worms and people respond to the smell of the chemical diacetyl, known to humans as "buttered popcorn smell," which is present in a number of foods, including ones in the C. elegans diet. In fact, the worms have a pair of neurons called AWA dedicated to sensing it. To observe behavioral variation between adult and adolescent worms, the Salk team placed the animals in the center of a dish with a drop of diacetyl on one side, and a neutral odor on the other. Then, in a series of trials over several days, they characterized the paths the worms took.
What the scientists saw surprised them: Adolescent worms meandered and took their time getting to the diacetyl, if they got there at all; adult worms made a beeline for it.
"It's like the younger worms are angsty teens," says Laura Hale, a collaborative researcher at Salk and first author of the paper. "To watch their behavior, it's as though they say, 'Yeah, I know I'm supposed to go over there but I just don't feel like it.'"
The microscopic Caenorhabditis elegans worm may seem like an odd source of insight into human brain development. With only 302 neurons to humans' almost 100 billion, C. elegans is a vastly simpler organism but its basic neurological circuitry has many similarities to ours. And, since scientists have already mapped the adult roundworms' neurons anatomically and functionally, they can easily perform experiments and trace neural circuits in C. elegans tasks that are not possible in humans, yielding valuable information about both species.
For instance, both worms and people respond to the smell of the chemical diacetyl, known to humans as "buttered popcorn smell," which is present in a number of foods, including ones in the C. elegans diet. In fact, the worms have a pair of neurons called AWA dedicated to sensing it. To observe behavioral variation between adult and adolescent worms, the Salk team placed the animals in the center of a dish with a drop of diacetyl on one side, and a neutral odor on the other. Then, in a series of trials over several days, they characterized the paths the worms took.
What the scientists saw surprised them: Adolescent worms meandered and took their time getting to the diacetyl, if they got there at all; adult worms made a beeline for it.
"It's like the younger worms are angsty teens," says Laura Hale, a collaborative researcher at Salk and first author of the paper. "To watch their behavior, it's as though they say, 'Yeah, I know I'm supposed to go over there but I just don't feel like it.'"