Table 1.
Effects of severing AFD and ASH dendrites on ASH-specific osmosensory function
| Strain | Surgery | Hours after surgery | % Escape NGM Rings (n) | % Escape Glycerol Rings (n) |
| osm-3(p802) | -- | -- | 90 ± 5 (30) | 83 ± 7 (30) |
| WT (gcy-8::gfp) | -- | -- | 93 ± 5 (30) | 3 ± 3 (30) |
| mock | 24 | 83 ± 7 (29) | 0 ± 0**(31) | |
| both AFD dendrites cut | 24 | 84 ± 7 (25) | ||
| WT (sra-6::gfp) | mock | 24 | 92 ± 6 (24) | 0 ± 0**(24) |
| both ASH dendrites cut | 24 | 100 ± 0 (26) | 77 ± 8(26) | |
| mock | 48 | 100 ± 0 (8) | 0 ± 0**(8) | |
| both ASH dendrites cut | 48 | 88 ± 8 (17) | 83 ± 9(18) | |
| mock | 72 | 100 ± 0 (24) | 0 ± 0**(24) | |
| both ASH dendrites cut | 72 | 100 ± 0 (15) | 93 ± 6(15) | |
| mock | 96 | 86 ± 8 (21) | 0 ± 0** (21) | |
| both ASH dendrites cut | 96 | 77 ± 9 (22) | 73 ± 9 (22) |
Comparison of ASH-mediated osmosensory function in (i) an osm-3 mutant strain that lacks ASH function, (ii) a wild-type background strain with or without both AFD dendrites cut, 24 hours after surgery, and (iii) a wild-type background strain with the ASH neuron expressing GFP with and without both ASH dendrites cut, 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours after surgery. We assayed the ability of worms to sense the boundaries of rings of glycerol solution or NGM buffer on an agar surface one day after undergoing surgery or mock surgery. We report the percentage ± standard error of escape from the rings after 10 min. There is no significant difference between the escape percentages between different worm strains in the column corresponding to NGM rings. For each row, asterisks denote significant difference between escape from glycerol rings and from NGM rings (** P < 10-5).