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Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2021

Theses and Dissertations

Applied Mathematics

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Full-Text Articles in Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology

A Computational Investigation Of The Biophysical Mechanisms Underlying Thermotaxis In The Afd Neurons Of Caenorhabditis Elegans, Zachary Mobille Mar 2021

A Computational Investigation Of The Biophysical Mechanisms Underlying Thermotaxis In The Afd Neurons Of Caenorhabditis Elegans, Zachary Mobille

Theses and Dissertations

Thermotaxis in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is studied at the cellular scale of the amphid finger-like ciliated (AFD) neurons, which have previously been shown to be essential for thermoreception. The voltage and calcium signals of AFD during temperature stimuli are described with ordinary differential equations. The primary calcium model is a modified version of that published by Kuramochi and Doi in 2017 to explain the calcium responses of the chemosensitive amphid single-ciliated right (ASER) neuron to fluctuations in extracellular salt concentration. To account for the effects of temperature, changes to the stimuli conditions under which inactivation takes place …