Another possibility is that the smell of PA14 is recognized through an as yet unidentified odorant molecule that is unique to it. Next, we asked which neurons operate downstream of AWB and AWC to display naive and learned olfactory preferences. Serial-section electron micrography has revealed the complete wiring diagram of the C. elegans nervous system ( Chen et al., 2006 and White et al., 1986). Potential functional circuits can be identified as groups MK-2206 ic50 of neurons that are heavily interconnected by large numbers of synapses. This straightforward method of counting synapses allowed previous investigators, for example,

to map pathways that regulate the ability of crawling worms to generate spontaneous omega turns and reversals ( Gray et al., selleck chemicals llc 2005). We applied this method to identify integrated circuits downstream of AWB and AWC based on strong chemical synaptic connections ( Table S1 and Supplemental Experimental Procedures). This analysis uncovered a multilayered

neural network composed of sensory neurons (AWB, AWC, and ADF), interneurons (AIB, AIY, AIZ, RIA, and RIB), and motor neurons (RIM, RIV, RMD, SAA, and SMD) ( Figure 2C; Table S2). Most neurons in this candidate network represent pairs of bilaterally symmetric neurons except that SMD and SAA are groups of four neurons and RMD are six neurons. This network downstream of the AWB and AWC olfactory sensory neurons overlaps partly with a previously mapped network that regulates the frequency of reversals and omega turns of crawling worms ( Gray et al., CYTH4 2005 and Tsalik and Hobert, 2003). For this study, the network downstream of AWB and AWC provides candidate pathways for understanding how olfactory preference and plasticity are generated in the C. elegans nervous system. To characterize how the neuronal function of the olfactory network in Figure 2C allows animals to display different olfactory preferences before and after learning, we performed a systematic laser ablation analysis of

each neuronal type in the network. We conducted laser ablations with a femtosecond laser microbeam (Chung et al., 2006) on L2 larvae and cultivated the operated animals under standard conditions until the adult stage. At this point, we transferred half of the operated animals onto a fresh lawn of OP50 as naive controls and the other half onto a fresh lawn of PA14 to induce aversive olfactory learning (Figure 1A). After 6 hours, we measured turning frequency of these naive and trained animals toward alternating air streams odorized with OP50 or PA14 (Figures 5G and 6G), which allowed us to analyze choice indexes to quantify olfactory preference (Figures 1B and 1C). We quantified effects of neuronal ablation by comparing the choice indexes of naive and trained ablated animals with those of matched mock controls.