Quantitative description of neuronal calcium dynamics in C. elegans' thermoreception

Zachary Mobille; Rosangela Follmann; Andrés Vidal-Gadea; Epaminondas Rosa Jr

doi:10.1016/j.biosystems.2022.104814

Quantitative description of neuronal calcium dynamics in C. elegans' thermoreception

Biosystems. 2023 Jan:223:104814. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2022.104814. Epub 2022 Nov 23.

Authors

Zachary Mobille¹, Rosangela Follmann², Andrés Vidal-Gadea³, Epaminondas Rosa Jr⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Illinois State University, Normal, 61790, IL, USA; Department of Mathematics, Illinois State University, Normal, 61790, IL, USA. Electronic address: zmobille3@gatech.edu.
² School of Information Technology, Illinois State University, Normal, 61790, IL, USA. Electronic address: rfollma@ilstu.edu.
³ School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, 61790, IL, USA. Electronic address: avidal@ilstu.edu.
⁴ Department of Physics, Illinois State University, Normal, 61790, IL, USA; School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, 61790, IL, USA. Electronic address: erosa@ilstu.edu.

PMID: 36435352
DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2022.104814

Abstract

The dynamical mechanisms underlying thermoreception in the nematode C. elegans are studied with a mathematical model for the amphid finger-like ciliated (AFD) neurons. The equations, equipped with Arrhenius temperature factors, account for the worm's thermotaxis when seeking environments at its cultivation temperature, and for the AFD's calcium dynamics when exposed to both linearly ramping and oscillatory temperature stimuli. Calculations of the peak time for calcium responses during simulations of pulse-like temperature inputs are consistent with known behavioral time scales of C. elegans.

Keywords: C. elegans; Calcium; Mathematical modeling; Thermoreception.

MeSH terms

Animals
Caenorhabditis elegans*
Calcium*
Neurons / physiology
Temperature

Substances

Calcium