Dimensionality of locomotor behaviors in developing C. elegans.

Adult animals display robust locomotion, yet the timeline and mechanisms of how juvenile animals acquire coordinated movements and how these movements evolve during development are not well understood. Recent advances in quantitative behavioral analyses have paved the way for investigating complex natural behaviors like locomotion. In this study, we tracked the swimming and crawling behaviors of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans from postembryonic development through to adulthood.

A Quantitative Analysis of Locomotor Patterns in Developing .

Adult animals display robust locomotion, yet the timeline and mechanisms of how juvenile animals acquire coordinated movements and how these movements evolve during development are not well understood. Recent advances in quantitative behavioral analyses have paved the way for investigating complex natural behaviors like locomotion. In this study, we tracked the swimming and crawling behaviors of the nematode from postembryonic development through to adulthood.

Boosting neuregulin 1 type-III expression hastens SMA motor axon maturation.

Intercellular communication between axons and Schwann cells is critical for attaining the complex morphological steps necessary for axon maturation. In the early onset motor neuron disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), many motor axons are not ensheathed by Schwann cells nor grow sufficiently in radial diameter to become myelinated. These developmentally arrested motor axons are dysfunctional and vulnerable to rapid degeneration, limiting efficacy of current SMA therapeutics.

A developmental approach to diversifying neuroscience through effective mentorship practices: perspectives on cross-identity mentorship and a critical call to action.

Many early-career neuroscientists with diverse identities may not have mentors who are more advanced in the neuroscience pipeline and have a congruent identity due to historic biases, laws, and policies impacting access to education. Cross-identity mentoring relationships pose challenges and power imbalances that impact the retention of diverse early career neuroscientists, but also hold the potential for a mutually enriching and collaborative relationship that fosters the mentee's success. Additionally, the barriers faced by diverse mentees and their mentorship needs may evolve with career progression and require developmental considerations.

Dopamine receptor DOP-1 engages a sleep pathway to modulate swimming in .

Animals require robust yet flexible programs to support locomotion. Here we report a pathway that connects the D1-like dopamine receptor DOP-1 with a sleep mechanism to modulate swimming in . We show that DOP-1 plays a negative role in sustaining swimming behavior.

Impaired prenatal motor axon development necessitates early therapeutic intervention in severe SMA.

Gene replacement and pre-mRNA splicing modifier therapies represent breakthrough gene targeting treatments for the neuromuscular disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), but mechanisms underlying variable efficacy of treatment are incompletely understood. Our examination of severe infantile onset human SMA tissues obtained at expedited autopsy revealed persistence of developmentally immature motor neuron axons, many of which are actively degenerating. We identified similar features in a mouse model of severe SMA, in which impaired radial growth and Schwann cell ensheathment of motor axons began during embryogenesis and resulted in reduced acquisition of myelinated axons that impeded motor axon function neonatally.