Figure 2.

Multiple A-class motor neurons function as oscillators during backward movements. (a) Ablation of A-class motor neurons that reside in a restricted body segments did not prevent bending wave propagation at adjacent regions. (i) Schematics of the soma position of the A-class motor neurons, arbitrarily separated into the anterior, mid- and posterior segments. (ii) Representative kymographs of bending curvature along the body of animals missing A-class motor neurons in the anterior (left), mid- (centre) and posterior (right) body segments. (b) An animal with its mid-body trapped inside a microfluidic device continued to generate anteriorly propagating bending waves in the unrestrained anterior and posterior segment with different frequencies, as shown in a series of video frames (left), and by kymograph of time-varying curvature along the body (right) where vertical lines mark the anterior and posterior limits of the straight channel. Panel (a) adapted from [39]. See Materials and Methods.