AWAL, AWAR

Type: Sensory neuron (odorsensory)
In MoW: AWA
Male Wiring Project: AWAL, AWAR
In Wormbase: AWA, AWAL, AWAR
Lineage: AB plaapapaa, AB praapapaa
Location: Lateral ganglia of head
Description: Amphid wing "A" cells. AWA have ciliated sheet-like sensory endings closely associated with amphid sheath (Doroquez et al., 2014). Like all other amphid neurons, AWA are born near the presumptive nose of the embryo during development. They then anchor a short projection there, after which the cell body migrates away, stretching the dendrite out behind it. This process is dependent on DEX-1 or DYF-7, secreted extracellular matrix proteins which act cooperatively for anchoring. In mutants lacking these proteins, the dendrite fails to anchor at the nose and is dragged along with the migrating cell body, giving rise to a short dendritic stub (Heiman and Shaham, 2010)
Neurotransmitter/ Neuropeptide:
Innexin expression:
None yet reported, although described to have gap junctions in adult animals (MoW)
Receptor expression:
- OCR-1; TRPV (mammalian capsaicin receptor-like channel) protein



- OCR-2; TRPV (mammalian capsaicin receptor-like channel) protein
- OSM-9;TRPV (mammalian capsaicin receptor-like channel) protein
- ODR-10; 7-TM diacetyl receptor
(Tobin et al., 2002; Sengupta et al., 1996; Colbert et al., 1997; Zhang et al., 1997)
Function:
- Chemotaxis to diacetyl, pyrazine, trimethylthiazole (Bargmann et al., 1993)
- One of the three core sensory neurons (AWA, AWC, ASK) that are required for sexual-attraction in males (White and Jorgensen, 2012)


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AWAL (AB plaapapaa) development in the embryo.
Dorsal view. Bottom is left side of the embryo. Spheres indicate individual nuclei. Black sphere: ancestors of AWAL; 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).

 
 

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AWAR (AB praapapaa) development in the embryo.
Dorsal view. Bottom is left side of the embryo. Spheres indicate individual nuclei. Black sphere: ancestors of AWAR; 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).


 
 

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3D reconstruction of the anterior sensory endings (cilia and dendrites) from high resolution serial section transmission electron micrographs (ssTEMs).
Bar 1 μm. Color code for the sensory endings is shown on the right-colors do not follow the WA color code. To expand, double click on the video, to return to original size, click "esc" (Doroquez et al., 2014)

 
 
 

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3D reconstruction of all amphid neuron cilia and associated socket and sheath cell processes.
Modeled from serial section transmission electron micrographs
(ssTEMs). Bar 1 μm. Color code for the sensory endings is shown on the left-colors do not follow the WA color code. To expand, double click on the video, to return to original size, click "esc" (Doroquez et al., 2014)

 
 

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Ultrastructure of the microtubules (MTs) in AWA cilium.
3D reconstruction model of MTs in the branching region (see the AWA cilium image above). Colors do not follow the WA color code (dark purple; A tubules, light purple; B tubules, red; inner singlet microtubules). To expand, double click on the video, to return to original size, click "esc" (Doroquez et al., 2014)

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