The Interscutularis Muscle Connectome
The complete connectional map (connectome) of a neural circuit is essential for understanding its structure and function. Such maps have only been obtained in Caenorhabditis elegans. As an attempt at solving mammalian circuits, we reconstructed the connectomes of six interscutularis muscles from adu...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Public Library of Science
2011
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/64799 |
| _version_ | 1826212037012750336 |
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| author | Lu, Ju Tapia, Juan Carlos White, Olivia L. Lichtman, Jeff W. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Lu, Ju Tapia, Juan Carlos White, Olivia L. Lichtman, Jeff W. |
| author_sort | Lu, Ju |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The complete connectional map (connectome) of a neural circuit is essential for understanding its structure and function. Such maps have only been obtained in Caenorhabditis elegans. As an attempt at solving mammalian circuits, we reconstructed the connectomes of six interscutularis muscles from adult transgenic mice expressing fluorescent proteins in all motor axons. The reconstruction revealed several organizational principles of the neuromuscular circuit. First, the connectomes demonstrate the anatomical basis of the graded tensions in the size principle. Second, they reveal a robust quantitative relationship between axonal caliber, length, and synapse number. Third, they permit a direct comparison of the same neuron on the left and right sides of the same vertebrate animal, and reveal significant structural variations among such neurons, which contrast with the stereotypy of identified neurons in invertebrates. Finally, the wiring length of axons is often longer than necessary, contrary to the widely held view that neural wiring length should be minimized. These results show that mammalian muscle function is implemented with a variety of wiring diagrams that share certain global features but differ substantially in anatomical form. This variability may arise from the dominant role of synaptic competition in establishing the final circuit. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:15:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/64799 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:15:27Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/647992022-10-02T01:42:26Z The Interscutularis Muscle Connectome Lu, Ju Tapia, Juan Carlos White, Olivia L. Lichtman, Jeff W. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics White, Olivia L. White, Olivia L. The complete connectional map (connectome) of a neural circuit is essential for understanding its structure and function. Such maps have only been obtained in Caenorhabditis elegans. As an attempt at solving mammalian circuits, we reconstructed the connectomes of six interscutularis muscles from adult transgenic mice expressing fluorescent proteins in all motor axons. The reconstruction revealed several organizational principles of the neuromuscular circuit. First, the connectomes demonstrate the anatomical basis of the graded tensions in the size principle. Second, they reveal a robust quantitative relationship between axonal caliber, length, and synapse number. Third, they permit a direct comparison of the same neuron on the left and right sides of the same vertebrate animal, and reveal significant structural variations among such neurons, which contrast with the stereotypy of identified neurons in invertebrates. Finally, the wiring length of axons is often longer than necessary, contrary to the widely held view that neural wiring length should be minimized. These results show that mammalian muscle function is implemented with a variety of wiring diagrams that share certain global features but differ substantially in anatomical form. This variability may arise from the dominant role of synaptic competition in establishing the final circuit. National Institutes of Health (U.S.) 2011-07-13T19:31:17Z 2011-07-13T19:31:17Z 2009-02 2008-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1544-9173 1545-7885 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/64799 Lu, Ju et al. “The Interscutularis Muscle Connectome.” PLoS Biol 7.2 (2009) : e1000032. 19209956 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000032 PLoS Biology Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ application/pdf Public Library of Science PLoS |
| spellingShingle | Lu, Ju Tapia, Juan Carlos White, Olivia L. Lichtman, Jeff W. The Interscutularis Muscle Connectome |
| title | The Interscutularis Muscle Connectome |
| title_full | The Interscutularis Muscle Connectome |
| title_fullStr | The Interscutularis Muscle Connectome |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Interscutularis Muscle Connectome |
| title_short | The Interscutularis Muscle Connectome |
| title_sort | interscutularis muscle connectome |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/64799 |
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