TY - JOUR T1 - A Neuroendocrine Modulation to Sustain <em>C. elegans</em> Forward Locomotion JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/065235 SP - 065235 AU - Maria A. Lim AU - Jyothsna Chitturi AU - Valeriya Laskova AU - Jun Meng AU - Daniel Findeis AU - Anne Wiekenberg AU - Ben Mulcahy AU - Linjiao Luo AU - Yan Li AU - Yangning Lu AU - Wesley Hung AU - Yixin Qu AU - Chi-Yip Ho AU - Douglas Holmyard AU - Rebecca McWhirter AU - Ni Ji AU - Aravinthan D. T. Samuel AU - David M. Miller III AU - Ralf Schnabel AU - John A. Calarco AU - Mei Zhen Y1 - 2016/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/07/23/065235.abstract N2 - HighlightsRID is a specialized peptidergic neuron.UNC-39/Six/SO governs RID neurogenesis.Subtractive RNA profiling uncovers FLP, INS and NLP neuropeptides in RID.RID sustains C. elegans forward locomotion in part through FLP-14.Summary Neuromodulators shape neural circuit dynamics. Combining electron microscopy, genetics, transcriptome profiling, calcium imaging and optogenetics, we discovered a peptidergic neuron that sustains C. elegans forward movement. The Six/SO-family homeobox transcription factor UNC-39 governs lineage-specific neurogenesis to give rise to a neuron called RID. RID bears hallmarks of a specialized neuroendocrine: it harbors near-exclusive dense core vesicle clusters along the axon, and expresses multiple neuropeptides, including FLP-14. RID activity increases during forward movement. Ablating RID reduces the sustainability of forward movement, a phenotype partially recapitulated by removing FLP-14. Activating RID prolongs forward movement, an effect that requires FLP-14. In summary, RID is a specialized endocrine neuron that promotes C. elegans forward motor state in part through a neuropeptide FLP-14. ER -