Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T02:40:46.863Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Behavior at the Organismal and Molecular Levels: The Case of C. elegans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Kenneth F. Schaffner
Kenneth F. Schaffner*
Affiliation:
George Washington University
*
†Send requests for reprints to the author, University Professor of Medical Humanities, 709C Gelman Library, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052; e-mail: medhum@gwu.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is a tiny worm that has become the focus of a large number of worldwide research projects examining its genetics, development, neuroscience, and behavior. Recently several groups of investigators have begun to tie together the behavior of the organism and the underlying genes, neural circuits, and molecular processes implemented in those circuits. Behavior is quintessentially organismal—it is the organism as a whole that moves and mates—but the explanations are devised at the molecular and neurocircuit levels, and tested in populations using protocols that span many levels of aggregation. Following a brief review of the main relevant features of C. elegans, I describe some of these circuits, and then discuss two contrasting approaches in behavioral genetics and neural network analysis of the worm. Finally, I outline the rudiments of a “field and focus” explanation model using the two contrasting approaches.

Type
Philosophy of Biology, Psychology, and Neuroscience
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 67 , Issue S3: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1998 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers Sep., 2000 , 2000 , pp. S273 - S288
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

The research leading to this article has been partially supported by the National Science Foundation's Studies in Science, Technology, and Society Program.

References

Achacoso, Theodore B. and Yamamoto, William S. (1992), A Y's Neuroanatomy of C. elegans for Computation. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.Google Scholar
Avery, L., Raizen, David, and Lockery, Shawn R. (1995), “Electrophysiological Methods”, in Henry F. Epstein and Diane C. Shakes (eds.), Caenorhabditis Elegans: Modern Biological Analysis of an Organism. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, 251–269.Google Scholar
Bargmann, Cornelia I. (1993), “Genetic and Cellular Analysis of Behavior in C. elegans”, Annual Review of Neuroscience 16: 47–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bower, James M. and Beeman, David (1995), The Book of GENESIS: Exploring Realistic Neural Models with the GEneral NEural Simulation System. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
C. elegans Sequencing Consortium (1998) “Genome Sequence of the Nematode C. elegans: A Platform for Investigating Biology”, Science 282: 2012–2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chalfie, Martin and White, John (1988), “The Nervous System”, in Wood 1988, 337–339.Google Scholar
Cherniak, Christopher (1994), “Component Placement Optimization in the Brain”, Journal of Neuroscience 14: 2418–2427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Churchland, Patricia S. and Sejnowski, Terrence J. (1992), The Computational Brain. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook-Deegan, Robert (1994), Gene Wars. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Darden, L. and Maull, N. (1977), “Interfield Theories”, Philosophy of Science 44: 43–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Bono, Mario and Bargmann, Cori (1998), “Natural Variation in a Neuropeptide Y Receptor Homolog Modifies Social Behavior and Food Response in C. elegans”, Cell 94: 677–689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, G. A. (1990), “Conceptual Problems with Kinesis and Taxis”, in Armitage, J. P. and Lackie, J. M. (eds.), Biology of the Chemotactic Response. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1–14.Google Scholar
Durbin, Richard M. (1987), Studies on the Development and Organization of the Nervous System of Caenorhabditis elegans. Ph.D. dissertation, Cambridge University, UK.Google Scholar
Ferrée, Thomas C. and Lockery, Shawn R. (1999), “Computational Rules for Chemotaxis in the Nematode C. elegans”, Journal of Computational Neuroscience, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Ferrée, Thomas C., Machotte, Ben A., and Lockery, Shawn R. (1996), “Neural Network Models of Chemotaxis in the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans”, Submitted to 1996 Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) Meeting.Google Scholar
Giere, R. (1984), Understanding Scientific Reasoning, 2nd ed. New York: Holt, Reinhart and Winston.Google Scholar
Goodman, Miriam B., Hall, David H., Avery, Leon, and Lockery, Shawn R. (1998), “Active Currents Regulate Sensitivity and Dynamic Range in C. elegans Neurons”, Neuron 20: 763–772.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodgkin, Jonathan, Plasterk, Ronald H. A., and Waterston, Robert H. (1995), “The Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and Its Genome”, Science 270: 410–414.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kandel, Eric, Schwartz, James, and Jessel, Thomas (1992), Principles of Neuroscience, 3rd ed. Norwalk, CT: Appleton & Lange.Google Scholar
Kandel, Eric, Schwartz, James, and Jessel, Thomas. (1995) Essentials of Neural Science and Behavior. Norwalk, CT: Appleton & Lange.Google Scholar
Kitcher, Philip (1984), “1953 and All That. A Tale of Two Sciences”, Philosophical Review 18: 335–373. Reprinted in Eliott Sober (ed.) (1994), Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 379–399. Page references are to the reprinted version.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockery, Shawn (1999), Lockery's home page: http://chinook.uoregon.edu.Google Scholar
Lockery, Shawn R., Nowlan, S. J, and Sejnowski, Terrence J. (1993), “Modeling Chemotaxis in the Nematode C. elegans”, in Eeckman, F. H. and Bower, J. M. (eds.), Computation and Neural Systems. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 249–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockery, Shawn R. and Sejnowski, Terrence J. (1993), “The Computational Leech,” Trends in Neuroscience 16: 283–290.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mori, Ikue and Ohshima, Yasumi (1995), “Neural Regulation of Thermotaxis in Caenhorhabditis elegans”, Nature 376: 344–348.10.1038/376344a0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plomin, Robert, DeVries, John, and McClearn, Gerald (1990), Behavioral Genetics: A Primer, 2nd ed. New York: Freeman.Google Scholar
Plomin, Robert, DeVries, John, McClearn, Gerald, and Ruttner, Michael (1997), Behavioral Genetics, 3rd ed. New York: Freeman.Google Scholar
Railton, Peter (1980), Explaining Explanation. Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University.Google Scholar
Raizen, David and Avery, Leon (1994), “Electrical Activity and Behavior in the Pharynx of Caenorhabditis elegans,” Neuron 12: 483–495.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarkar, Sahotra (1998), Genetics and Reductionism. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaffner, Kenneth F. (1993), Discovery and Explanation in Biology and Medicine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Schaffner, Kenneth F. (1998) “Genes, Behavior, and Developmental Emergentism: One Process, Indivisible?”, Philosophy of Science 65: 209–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sulston, John E., Schierenberg, E., White, John G., and Thomson, J. N. (1983), “The Embryonic Cell Lineage of the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans”, Developmental Biology 100: 64–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suppe, Frederick (1989), The Semantic Conception of Scientific Theories and Scientific Realism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Suppes, Patrick (1957), Introduction to Logic. Princeton: Van Nostrand.Google Scholar
Van Fraassen, Bas C. (1980), The Scientific Image. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, John G., Southgate, E., Thomson, J. N., and Brenner, Sydney (1986), “The Structure of the Nervous System of the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 314: 1–340.Google Scholar
Wicks, Stephen R. and Rankin, Catharine H. (1995), “Integration of Mechanosensory Stimuli in Caenorhabditis elegans”, Journal of Neuroscience 15: 2434–2444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wicks, Stephen R., Roehrig, C., and Rankin, Catherine (1996), “A Dynamic Network Simulation of the Nematode Tap Withdrawal Circuit: Predictions Concerning Synaptic Function Using Behavioral Criteria”, Journal of Neuroscience 16: 4017–4013.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wade, Nicholas (1998), “Can Social Behavior of Man Be Glimpsed in a Lowly Worm?”, New York Times, September 7, 1998.Google Scholar
Wood, William (ed.), (1988), The Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Cold Spring Harbor: Cold Spring Harbor Press.Google Scholar