Fig. 7.

mec-10(tm1552) mutants have reduced touch-evoked calcium transients in PLM touch neurons. A: stimulus positions for imaging experiments. Animals were given a 1-s gentle (buzz) stimulus at the indicated position, as described in methods. B–E: averaged calcium responses of wild-type (B), mec-10(tm1552) (C), mec-4(u253) null mutants (D), and mec-10(tm1552); ljEx228[pmec-4::mec-10 pmyo-2::GFP] rescue animals (E). Each trace represents the average percentage change in R/R₀. The numbers of individual recordings averaged for each trace were n = 22, 22, and 22 (wild-type, positions 3, 2, and 1, respectively); n = 22, 22, and 22 (mec-10, positions 3, 2, and 1, respectively); n = 22, 22, and 22 (mec-10 rescue, positions 3, 2, and 1, respectively); and n = 10, 10, and 10 (mec-4, positions 3, 2, and 1, respectively). Gray shading indicates SE of the mean response. Scale bars are indicated in the top left. The green bar indicates the time of the stimulus. F: scatterplot of peak calcium responses for each genotype. Red lines indicate the mean response at each of the stimulus points; error bars indicate SE. Every other line indicates the response for a single animal. Half the animals were stimulated from anterior to posterior and half from posterior to anterior. Statistical significance (***P < 0.001; **P < 0.01, *P < 0.05) is according to the Mann–Whitney rank-sum test.