AVL

Type: Polymodal (interneuron, motor neuron)
Connectivity:
- In MoW: AVL
- In WormWiring: AVL, AVLm
- In Nemanode: AVL
In Wormbase: AVL
Lineage: AB prpappaap
Location: Ventral ganglion in head
Description: An excitatory motor neuron for enteric muscles as well as a ring and ventral cord interneuron. In males, makes gap junctions with PDB, has a few synapses onto gonad and ventral body wall muscles (Jarrell et al., 2012).
Neurotransmitter/ Neuropeptide:
- GABA
(Eastman et al., 1999)


Innexin expression:
- INX-2
- INX-10a
- INX-14
- UNC-9
(Bhattacharya et al., 2019)
Receptor expression:
Function:
- Defecation. AVL and DVB are excitatory GABAergic motor neurons for the enteric muscles. Together with DVB, AVL activates expulsion muscle contraction. AVL is also required for anterior body contraction step in the defecation motor program (DMP) (Avery and Thomas, 1997; McIntire et al., 1993).
Reporters:
- At CGC: XE2660 wpIs40 [unc-47p::mCherry] V. ynIs50 [flp-22p::GFP]
- Other:


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AVL (AB prpappaap) development in the embryo.
Dorsal view. Bottom is left side of the embryo. Spheres indicate individual nuclei. Black sphere: ancestors of AVL; dark grey spheres: apoptotic cells; other cells follow the WA color code (after they acquire specific cell or tissue identities). 0 min is fertilization. Click on the movie for higher resolution rendition (by A. Santella & Z. Bao).


Last revision: August 7, 2024
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