Worm Breeder's Gazette 13(1): 35 (October 1, 1993)
These abstracts should not be cited in bibliographies. Material contained herein should be treated as personal communication and should be cited as such only with the consent of the author.
Since the Worm Meeting, I have put the finishing touches to a connectivity matrix of the nematode nervous system that projects onto a single A3 sheet of paper without information loss. The connectivity matrix and its database consolidate the information from the wildtype reconstruction of White, Southgate, Thomson and Brenner (1986), while allowing for further information to be added. With Excel 4 (a database management program), colour has been added to code for neurotransmitter types, position and lineage information. A sample matrix and connection coding is shown below:
A portion of the final connectivity matrix showing all the major connections for the interneurones and motoneurones of the body musculature is also shown:
This database has been developed to consolidate and to compile the large amounts of information previously documented and newly discovered about the nematode nervous system. By presenting the entire connectivity pattern on a single matrix, the significance of the expression patterns of neurogenes may be made more obvious. This format will hopefully be useful as a standard for displaying the expression patterns of genes that are found in specific classes of neurones and will hopefully be incorporated as part of ACEDB.
Presently, one can obtain copies of the complete wildtype database from me by posting your request. Please state if you have access to Excel 2.2 or Excel 4 for Macintosh (sorry PC users) and the disk density used by your disk driver. For a printout of the final colour matrix, please post your request. I am trying to find an inexpensive method of duplication, any suggestions will be most welcome.
