VCn is a set of six motoneurons in the ventral cord, which innervate ventral body muscles
and the vm2 muscles of the vulva. VC4 and VC5 (h), which are situated nearest the vulva,
have short processes in the ventral cord but send several processes dorsally along the vulval
hyperdermis on each side of the vulval opening, where they have large, vesicle-filled
varicosities and innervate vm2 vulval muscles (a). They also synapse onto other VC neurons
and receive some synaptic input from HSN in these regions. VC1, VC2, VC3 and VC6 send less extensive processes, which have similar synaptic contacts, into these vulval regions, but they
have much longer processes in the ventral cord (h). These processes run near or adjacent to
the bounding basal lamina in the dorsal region of the cord (figure 18). There they synapse onto DDn and VCn neurons (c) and have NMJs that are dyadic, with DDn and VDn as the second
postsynaptic element (b). VCn neurons have gap junctions with each other (e) and also have
some chemical synapses with each other. There are some features that seem to be unique for
particular VCns thai may be significant: VC5 synapses onto DVB and DVC (d) and VC3 has
a gap junction directly to the process from a vm2 muscle (f).
Magnifications: (a-c, e) x 17000, (d, f) x 25500.
Click pictures for higher resolution images
