A Mutant Exhibiting Abnormal Habituation Behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans |
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Authors: | TOSHIHIRO SASSA KIYOSHI KUNOH XIZHEN XU RYUJI HOSONO |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Physical Information, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa 920-0942, Japan;2. Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Faculty of Medicine, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa 920-0942, Japan |
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Abstract: | The acquisition and retention of information by the nervous system are major processes of learning. Habituation is a simple learning process that occurs during repeated exposure to harmless stimuli. C. elegans is habituated when repeatedly given mechanical stimuli and recover from the habituation when the stimuli are stopped. A habituation abnormal mutant was isolated and assigned to a new gene hab-1 whose mutation causes slow habituation. The hab-1 mutant phenotype is remarkable at short time interval stimuli. However, hab-1 mutant worms show normal dishabituation. Ablations of neurons constituting the neural circuit for mechanical reflexes did not abolish abnormalities caused by the hab-1 mutation. |
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Keywords: | neural tube defects chromosome translocation mouse embryo |
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