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Fig. 4. Intracellular recordings reveal altered depolarization in action potentials from cca-1 mutant pharynxes. (A) Sample intracellular voltage recordings from wild-type and cca-1(ad1650) mutant worms. While the depolarization phase of the wild-type action potential usually rises steeply and steadily from resting potential to a peak, action potentials from cca-1 mutant worms often display a notch or flattened area early in depolarization. (B) Average maximal rising phase slopes for the wild-type, cca-1, eat-2 and eat-2; cca-1. 50-100 differentiated and aligned action potentials were averaged for each individual pharynx. A peak slope for each individual pharynx was obtained from the averaged trace. This calculation was performed for 19 wild-type animals, 16 cca-1 mutant animals, 14 eat-2 mutant animals and 11 eat-2; cca-1 double mutant animals. From the peak slopes for each individual, an average peak slope was calculated for each genotype, expressed as mean ± S.E.M. *Significantly different from the wild type; {dagger}significantly different from all other strains (P<0.005 for all comparisons, t-test). (C) (Top) Superimposed action potentials (with rising phases aligned) from two representative wild-type pharynxes. (Bottom) Time derivatives of the action potentials above. N=63 and 66 for left and right traces, respectively. (D) Same as in C for two representative cca-1(ad1650) worms; N=51 and 74 for left and right panels, respectively. While wild-type action potentials generally display a smooth steep rising phase, the majority of action potentials from cca-1 mutant worms contain an initial depolarization, followed by a flattened area or notch. Plotting the time derivative of each action potential trace reproduces the EPG phenotypes of wild-type and cca-1 mutant worms (compare with Fig. 3) with a small, delayed depolarization spike following each initial rise in membrane potential. (E) Action potentials from two representative eat-2(ad465); cca-1(ad1650) double mutants, labeled as in C and D. These action potentials lack the initial depolarization and plateau seen in cca-1 single mutants, suggesting that early depolarization in a wild-type pharynx or cca-1 mutant pharynx is mediated by the EAT-2-containing nicotinic receptor.





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