Type: Interneuron
In MoW: AVG
Male Wiring Project: AVG_h, AVG_m
In Wormbase: AVG
Lineage: AB prpapppap
Location: Retrovesicular ganglion of head
Description: Ventral cord interneuron, few synapses, sends process into tailspike. In males, AVG has considerable input from HOA and LUA (Jarrell et al., 2012)
Neurotransmitter/ Neuropeptide:
- Acetylcholine
(Pereira et al., 2015)
Innexin expression:
- UNC-7
(Altun et al., 2009)
Receptor expression:
- GLR-1; glutamate receptor subunit
- GLR-2; glutamate receptor subunit
- NMR-1; glutamate receptor subunit
- NMR-2; glutamate receptor subunit
- DEG-3; alpha subunit of a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor
(Brockie et al., 2001; Maricq et al., 1995; Treinin and Chalfie, 1995)
Function: Anterior guidepost neuron.
- AVG pioneers the right tract of the ventral nerve cord. It expresses UNC-6 at 3-fold embryo stage to provide a continuous UNC-6 (netrin)-labeled pathway restricted to the right tract of the nerve cord. The unilateral UNC-6 cue from AVG guides various paired axons growing from the nerve ring and lumbar ganglia to make rightward decussations as they enter the ventral nerve cord. UNC-6 also promotes bundling of axons within the cord itself. If the parent of AVG is ablated in wild-type embryos, interneurons and ventral cord motor neurons form several small fascicles rather than one tight bundle of right side tract and occasionally the right side axons shift to the left side.
(Antebi et al., 1997; Wadsworth et al., 1996; Wadsworth and Hedgecock, 1986; Durbin 1987)