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. 2019 Jan 2;5(6):ENEURO.0289-18.2018. doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0289-18.2018

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Reduced daf-2 signaling rescues the body curvature of smn-1(ok355) animals during swimming. A, A trace of the head and tail trajectories for typical individuals from each genotype (e.g., N2, smn-1(ok355), daf-2(e1370) and smn-1(ok355);daf-2(e1370)). There is no qualitative difference between N2 versus the daf-2(e1370) mutant animals while the smn-1(ok355) mutant animals swim more slowly and beat less frequently than N2 worms. The smn-1(ok355);daf-2(e1370) mutant animals closely resemble N2 worms. B, Curvature kymographs of representative individuals of each genotype reveals a common pattern shared by N2, daf-2(e1370), and smn-1(ok355);daf-2(e1370) mutant animals. In contrast, smn-1(ok355) mutant animals exhibits relatively little curvature (white color) compared to other genotypes at a region from approximately the middle of the body to just before the tail, implicating a regional loss of neuromuscular function. CW, clockwise; CCW, counterclockwise. C, Quantification of regional body curvature in smn-1 mutant animals. We quantified the body curvature of animals with four genotypes (N2, smn-1(ok355), daf-2(e1370), and smn-1(ok355);daf-2(e1370)) and find that the curvature of each group of worms appears to have local maxima when averaged over time (for details, see Extended Data Fig. 3-1). For the N2 and daf-2(e1370) mutant animals, the mean normalized curvature decreases from head to tail. The daf-2(e1370) group shows a significant low curvature at the tail region compared to the N2 group. The smn-1(ok355) group has a distinct curvature pattern. Its curvature decreases rapidly after the worm’s mid-point and then increases sharply near the tail. This pattern corresponds to the region of low curvature observed in Figure 3B. In the daf-2 mutant background (smn-1(ok355);daf-2(e1370)), body curvature during swimming is normalized and appears similar to N2 and daf-2(e1370) mutant animals. This is quantitative evidence that the daf-2 mutant background rescues the neuromuscular defect seen in the midsection and tail of the smn-1(ok355) mutant animals. ns, no significance.