| We are studying the nervous system of the nematode, Ascaris suum. The entire A. suum nervous system is made up of just 298 neurons and the locomotory behavior of the worm appears to be simple. Over the past two decades, a world of neuromodulation by neuropeptides has turned "simple" on its head. It is now predicted that there are upwards of 250 neuropeptides in A. suum, with the largest class of them being the AF (Ascaris FMRFamide-like) peptides.;In this thesis, we are investigating the details of cellular expression of AF peptides in Ascaris suum in order to work toward as complete a picture as possible of how the A. suum nervous system functions. To localize peptides to individual neurons, we used three localization techniques, inrmunocytochemistry, in situ hybridization, and mass spectrometry, each of which has its advantages and limitations. We looked at four different peptide transcripts and found that they are each expressed in a unique subset of neurons in the A. suum locomotory nervous system. |
