Changes in postural syntax characterize sensory modulation and natural variation of C. elegans locomotion
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Schwarz, RF
Branicky, R
Grundy, LJ
Schafer, WR
Brown, AEX
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Locomotion is driven by shape changes coordinated by the nervous system through time;
thus, enumerating an animal's complete repertoire of shape transitions would provide a
basis for a comprehensive understanding of locomotor behaviour. Here we introduce a discrete
representation of behaviour in the nematode C. elegans. At each point in time, the
worm’s posture is approximated by its closest matching template from a set of 90 postures
and locomotion is represented as sequences of postures. The frequency distribution of postural
sequences is heavy-tailed with a core of frequent behaviours and a much larger set of
rarely used behaviours. Responses to optogenetic and environmental stimuli can be quantified
as changes in postural syntax: worms show different preferences for different
sequences of postures drawn from the same set of templates. A discrete representation of behaviour will enable the use of methods developed for other kinds of discrete data in bioinformatics and language processing to be harnessed for the study of behaviour.
thus, enumerating an animal's complete repertoire of shape transitions would provide a
basis for a comprehensive understanding of locomotor behaviour. Here we introduce a discrete
representation of behaviour in the nematode C. elegans. At each point in time, the
worm’s posture is approximated by its closest matching template from a set of 90 postures
and locomotion is represented as sequences of postures. The frequency distribution of postural
sequences is heavy-tailed with a core of frequent behaviours and a much larger set of
rarely used behaviours. Responses to optogenetic and environmental stimuli can be quantified
as changes in postural syntax: worms show different preferences for different
sequences of postures drawn from the same set of templates. A discrete representation of behaviour will enable the use of methods developed for other kinds of discrete data in bioinformatics and language processing to be harnessed for the study of behaviour.
Date Issued
2015-08-21
Date Acceptance
2015-05-05
Citation
PLOS Computational Biology, 2015, 11 (8)
ISSN
1553-734X
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Journal / Book Title
PLOS Computational Biology
Volume
11
Issue
8
Copyright Statement
© 2015 Schwarz et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
License URL
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Biochemical Research Methods
Mathematical & Computational Biology
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
CAENORHABDITIS-ELEGANS
NEURONAL-ACTIVITY
C. ELEGANS
BEHAVIOR
CHEMOTAXIS
DISCOVERY
ETHOLOGY
NEMATODE
LIGHT
TIME
Animals
Behavior, Animal
Caenorhabditis elegans
Cluster Analysis
Computational Biology
Locomotion
Optogenetics
Bioinformatics
06 Biological Sciences
08 Information And Computing Sciences
01 Mathematical Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e1004322