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Neural And Genetic Degeneracy Underlies Caenorhabditis Elegans Feeding Behavior, Christopher Fang-Yen
Neural And Genetic Degeneracy Underlies Caenorhabditis Elegans Feeding Behavior, Christopher Fang-Yen
Christopher Fang-Yen
Neural and genetic degeneracy underlies Caenorhabditis elegans feeding behavior. J Neurophysiol 112: 951–961, 2014. First published May 28, 2014; doi:10.1152/jn.00150.2014.—Degenerate networks, in which structurally distinct elements can perform the same function or yield the same output, are ubiquitous in biology. Degeneracy contrib- utes to the robustness and adaptability of networks in varied environ- mental and evolutionary contexts. However, how degenerate neural networks regulate behavior in vivo is poorly understood, especially at the genetic level. Here, we identify degenerate neural and genetic mechanisms that underlie excitation of the pharynx (feeding organ) in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans using cell-specific optogenetic excitation and …