PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
At the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), the binding of the excitatory neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) to postsynaptic receptors leads to muscle contraction. As in vertebrate skeletal muscle, cholinergic signaling in the body wall muscles of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans is required for locomotion. Exposure to levamisole, a pharmacological agonist of one class of ACh receptors on the body wall muscles, causes time-dependent paralysis of wild-type animals. Altered sensitivity to levamisole suggests defects in signaling at the NMJ or muscle function. Here, a protocol for a liquid levamisole assay performed on C. elegans grown in 24-well plates is presented. Vigorous swimming of the animals in liquid allows for the assessment and quantitation of levamisole-induced paralysis in hundreds of worms over a one-hour time period without requiring physical manipulation. This procedure can be used with both wild-type and mutants that have altered sensitivity to levamisole to demonstrate the functional consequences of altered signaling at the NMJ.
摘要：
在神经肌肉接头（NMJ），兴奋性神经递质乙酰胆碱（ACh）与突触后受体的结合导致肌肉收缩。和脊椎动物的骨骼肌一样，模型生物的体壁肌肉中的胆碱能信号秀丽隐杆线虫是运动所必需的。暴露于左旋咪唑,体壁肌肉上一类ACh受体的药理学激动剂，导致野生型动物的时间依赖性瘫痪。对左旋咪唑的敏感性改变表明NMJ或肌肉功能的信号传导缺陷。这里,提出了在24孔板中生长的C.elegans上进行的液体左旋咪唑测定的方案。动物在液体中的剧烈游泳可以在一小时的时间内对数百只蠕虫中左旋咪唑引起的瘫痪进行评估和定量，而无需进行物理操作。该程序可用于野生型和对左旋咪唑具有改变的敏感性的突变体,以证明在NMJ处改变的信号传导的功能后果。
