Cameleon imaging of calcium transients in cultured mechanosensory neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans

............................................................................................................................. 3 Credit ................................................................................................................................. 4 Introduction....................................................................................................................... 5 C.elegans as a model system ...................................................................................... 5 Vertebrate voltage gated calcium channels................................................................. 7 Invertebrate voltage gated calcium channels ............................................................ 10 Cameleon indicator ................................................................................................... 13 Mechanosensory neurons and primary culture ......................................................... 16 Results .............................................................................................................................. 18 Calibration of cameleon in cultured C.elegans neurons ........................................... 18 Calcium transients in response to depolarization...................................................... 22 Pharmacological block of calcium transients ........................................................... 28 α2δ expression pattern ............................................................................................. 34 EGL-19 and UNC-36 loss of function mutations decrease amplitude of calcium transients ................................................................................................................... 39 Conclusion/Discussion .................................................................................................... 43 Materials and Methods................................................................................................... 47 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... 54 Appendix 1....................................................................................................................... 55 Tabulated experimental results ................................................................................. 55 References:....................................................................................................................... 58