Nematodes: references

[Ernst Niebur]

I have received many requests for references of work on the nematode
nervous system. Someone asked me to send "all references on 
nematodes" - I am sorry, but that would go a little too far. The
number of papers only on C. elegans (ONE of an estimated 500,000
nematode species) is in the hundreds per year. I will focus on a few
articles which are of special interest for neural modelers.

The paper in which the complete nervous system of C. elegans is
described (actually, not quite complete: the pharynx part is in
Albertson & Thomson, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London B275, 299, 1976) is

	White, J.G., Southgate, E., Thomson, J.N., Brenner, S. The structure
	of the nervous system of the nematode C. elegans.  Phil. Trans. Roy.
	Soc. London B 314, 1, 1986.

The function of an interesting subcircuit of C. elegans is studied by
Laser ablation experiments (i.e., by killing identified neurons in a
worm and comparing the behavior of this animal with that of untreated
worms) in

	Chalfie, M., Sulston, J.E., White, J.G, Thomson, J.N and Brenner, S.
	The neural circuit for touch sensitivity in C. elegans. J. Neurosci.
	5(4), 956, 1984.

A very well written review paper on the electrophysiological (and some
other) work in the large nematode Ascaris lumbricoides is
	
	Stretton, A.O.W., Davis, R.E., Angstadt, J.D, Donmoyer, J.E. and
	Johnson, C.D. Neural control of behavior in Ascaris. Trends in
	Neuroscience, 294, June 1985.

Some more recent results on this system are described in the following
papers, which also contain useful references to other work of the
Stretton group:

	Angstadt, J.D, and Stretton, A.O.W. Slow active potentials in ventral
	inhibitory motor neurons of the nematode Ascaris. J. Comp. Physiol. 
	A 166, 165, 1989.

	Davis, R.E. and Stretton, A.O.W. Passive membrane properties of
	motorneurons and their role in long-distance signaling in the nematode
	Ascaris. J. Neurosci. 9(2), 403, 1989.

	Davis, R.E. and Stretton, A.O.W. Signaling properties of Ascaris
	motorneurons. Graded active responses, graded synaptic transmission
	and tonic transmitter release. J. Neurosci. 9(2), 415, 1989.

I will be happy to provide references to more specific topics, but I
think these are the ones that might be of potential interest for a
larger number of people on this mailing list.

Ernst Niebur
ernst at descartes.cns.caltech.edu