gene expression of caenorhabditis elegans neurons carries information on their synaptic connectivity基因表达的秀丽隐杆线虫神经元突触连接的信息.pdfVIP

Gene Expression of Caenorhabditis elegans Neurons Carries Information on Their Synaptic Connectivity 1* 2 3 4* Alon Kaufman , Gideon Dror , Isaac Meilijson , Eytan Ruppin 1 Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, 2 School of Computer Science, The Academic College of Tel Aviv–Yaffo, Tel Aviv, Israel, 3 School of Mathematical Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, 4 School of Computer Science and School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel The claim that genetic properties of neurons significantly influence their synaptic network structure is a common notion in neuroscience. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans provides an exciting opportunity to approach this question in a large-scale quantitative manner. Its synaptic connectivity network has been identified, and, combined with cellular studies, we currently have characteristic connectivity and gene expression signatures for most of its neurons. By using two complementary analysis assays we show that the expression signature of a neuron carries significant information about its synaptic connectivity signature, and identify a list of putative genes predicting neural connectivity. The current study rigorously quantifies the relation between gene expression and synaptic connectivity signatures in the C. elegans nervous system and identifies subsets of neurons where this relation is highly marked. The results presented and the genes identified provide a promising starting point for further, more detailed computational and experimental investigations. Citation: Kaufman A, Dror G, Meilijson I, Ruppin E (2006) Gene expression of Caenorhabditis elegans neurons carries information on their synaptic connectivity. PLoS Comput Biol 2(12): e167. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0020167 Introduction