Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comment
. 2021 Aug 3:10:e71813.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.71813.

C. elegans does a spit take

Affiliations
Comment

C. elegans does a spit take

Michael Hendricks. Elife. .

Abstract

Eating can turn into spitting because individual parts of a muscle cell are able to contract in different ways.

Keywords: C. elegans; behavior; hourglass circuit motif; motor control; neural circuitry; neuroscience; subcellular muscle contraction; subcellularly localized calcium transients.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

MH No competing interests declared

Comment on

References

    1. Avery L, Shtonda BB. Food transport in the C. elegans pharynx. Journal of Experimental Biology. 2003;206:2441–2457. doi: 10.1242/jeb.00433. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bhatla N, Droste R, Sando SR, Huang A, Horvitz HR. Distinct neural circuits control rhythm inhibition and spitting by the myogenic pharynx of C. elegans. Current Biology. 2015a;25:2075–2089. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.06.052. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bhatla N, Horvitz HR. Light and hydrogen peroxide inhibit C. elegans feeding through gustatory receptor orthologs and pharyngeal neurons. Neuron. 2015b;85:804–818. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.12.061. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fang-Yen C, Avery L, Samuel AD. Two size-selective mechanisms specifically trap bacteria-sized food particles in Caenorhabditis elegans. PNAS. 2009;106:20093–20096. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0904036106. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Frézal L, Félix M-A. C. elegans outside the Petri dish. eLife. 2015;4:e05849. doi: 10.7554/eLife.05849. - DOI - PMC - PubMed