*Result*: Surprising multifunctionality of a Tritonia swim CPG neuron: C2 drives the early phase of postswim crawling despite being silent during the behavior.
Original Publication: Washington [etc.]
Comment in: J Neurophysiol. 2025 Jan 1;133(1):1-2. doi: 10.1152/jn.00543.2024.. (PMID: 39589814)
J Neurosci. 2002 Mar 1;22(5):1985-93. (PMID: 11880529)
J Neurophysiol. 2004 Oct;92(4):2487-96. (PMID: 15140904)
J Neurophysiol. 2000 Mar;83(3):1346-55. (PMID: 10712462)
J Exp Biol. 1999;202(Pt 21):3029-3036. (PMID: 10518484)
Nature. 2010 Nov 18;468(7322):394-9. (PMID: 20972420)
J Neurosci Methods. 2009 Jan 30;176(2):121-8. (PMID: 18809433)
ACS Chem Neurosci. 2018 Aug 15;9(8):1917-1927. (PMID: 29309115)
PLoS One. 2012;7(2):e31737. (PMID: 22363716)
J Comp Neurol. 2006 Nov 20;499(3):485-505. (PMID: 16998939)
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996 Jan 9;93(1):422-6. (PMID: 8552652)
Sci Am. 1971 Feb;224(2):68-75. (PMID: 5545195)
J Comp Neurol. 2000 Sep 11;425(1):1-9. (PMID: 10940937)
Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2009 Aug 31;168(1-2):4-12. (PMID: 19406252)
J Exp Biol. 1991 Nov;161:1-24. (PMID: 1757771)
J Neurophysiol. 2010 Dec;104(6):3721-31. (PMID: 20861441)
J Neurophysiol. 1982 Jan;47(1):75-90. (PMID: 7057226)
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2006 Mar;192(3):235-45. (PMID: 16240147)
Annu Rev Neurosci. 1989;12:185-204. (PMID: 2648949)
J Vis Exp. 2020 Jul 9;(161):. (PMID: 32716392)
Nature. 1978 Apr 6;272(5653):541-3. (PMID: 692660)
J Neurophysiol. 2018 Oct 1;120(4):1461-1471. (PMID: 29873611)
J Neurophysiol. 2006 Mar;95(3):1323-33. (PMID: 16492944)
Curr Biol. 2019 Feb 4;29(3):426-434.e6. (PMID: 30661796)
Mol Neurobiol. 1989 Winter;3(4):237-73. (PMID: 2698177)
Elife. 2014 Aug 19;3:e02951. (PMID: 25139955)
Brain Res. 1999 Nov 27;848(1-2):35-44. (PMID: 10612696)
J Neurosci. 2006 Oct 18;26(42):10925-33. (PMID: 17050731)
Trends Neurosci. 2001 Mar;24(3):146-54. (PMID: 11182454)
Nature. 2016 Feb 18;530(7590):293-297. (PMID: 26855425)
J Neurobiol. 1982 May;13(3):267-77. (PMID: 6281381)
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jun 26;109 Suppl 1:10669-76. (PMID: 22723353)
Comp Biochem Physiol C Comp Pharmacol. 1979;62C(1):87-91. (PMID: 38047)
J Neurosci. 2023 May 17;43(20):3647-3657. (PMID: 37094932)
Curr Biol. 2015 Nov 16;25(22):2879-88. (PMID: 26549261)
*Further Information*
*In response to a suitably aversive skin stimulus, the marine mollusk Tritonia diomedea launches an escape swim followed by several minutes of high-speed crawling. The two escape behaviors are highly dissimilar: whereas the swim is a muscular behavior involving alternating ventral and dorsal whole body flexions, the crawl is a nonrhythmic gliding behavior mediated by the beating of foot cilia. The serotonergic dorsal swim interneurons (DSIs) are members of the swim central pattern generator (CPG) and also strongly drive crawling. Although the swim network is very well understood, the Tritonia crawling network to date comprises only three neurons: the DSIs and pedal neurons 5 and 21 (Pd5 and Pd21). Since Tritonia's swim network has been suggested to have arisen from a preexisting crawling network, we examined the possible role that another swim CPG neuron, C2, may play in crawling. Because of its complete silence in the postswim crawling period, C2 had not previously been considered to play a role in driving crawling. However, semi-intact preparation experiments demonstrated that a brief C2 spike train surprisingly and strongly drives the foot cilia for ∼30 s, something that cannot be explained by its synaptic connections to Pd5 and Pd21. Voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) imaging in the pedal ganglion identified many candidate crawling motor neurons that fire at an elevated rate after the swim and also revealed several pedal neurons that are strongly excited by C2. It is intriguing that unlike the DSIs, which fire tonically after the swim to drive crawling, C2 does so despite its postswim silence.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Tritonia swim central pattern generator (CPG) neuron C2 surprisingly and strongly drives the early phase of postswim crawling despite being silent during this period. In decades of research, C2 had not been suspected of driving crawling because of its complete silence after the swim. Voltage-sensitive dye imaging revealed that the Tritonia crawling motor network may be much larger than previously known and also revealed that many candidate crawling neurons are excited by C2.*