FIGURE 1.
The percentage of synchronous APs corresponded to the level of junctional conductance (Gj). A, photo of a filleted wild-type worm showing the two ventral quadrants of body wall muscle cells and the ventral nerve cord (VNC) between them. Muscle cells in the right quadrant are designated as R1 and R2, whereas those in the left quadrant are designated as L1 and L2. B, representative traces of APs (left panel) and junctional currents (right panel) recorded from various pairs of body wall muscle cells. The red and blue traces show temporal correlation between APs from the two cells in each pair. The asterisks indicate synchronized APs (≤50 ms in peak time difference). C, distribution of peak time differences for consecutive APs recorded from the L1L2 and R1R2 pairs. D, percentages of synchronous AP and levels of Gj in different pairs of muscle cells. E, the mean peak time difference for synchronous APs in different pairs of muscle cells. Several columns (e.g. L1L2+R1R2) represent pooled data of two different pairs of muscle cells because the two cell pairs have analogous anatomical locations and are indistinguishable in functional properties. The asterisk indicates a significant difference compared with the other groups (p < 0.05, one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test). In both D and E, the data are shown as the means ± S.E., and the number of cell pairs analyzed is indicated inside the column.