TY - GEN T1 - Mutations in KCNQ potassium channels cause pharyngeal pumping defects in C. elegans AU - Clovis, Yoanne AU - Webb, Alexis AU - Turner, Carl AU - Roberts, Bill DO - 10.17912/W2MW2D UR - http://beta.micropublication.org/journals/biology/w2mw2d/ AB - Pumps were stimulated with 10mM 5HT in M9 recorded as electropharyngeograms (EPGs) for 2 minutes in a NemaMetrix ScreenChip, and analyzed using NemAnalysis software (NemaMetrix). The null mutant strains kqt-1(aw3) and kqt-3 (aw1) were kindly donated by Dr. Aguan Wei (Wei et al., 2002) A) Pump frequency in kqt-1(aw3) animals was significantly lower than in N2s, while kqt-3(aw1) worms showed an increase in pump frequency (*p<0.05; ***p<0.01; 1-tailed Mann-Whitney U-test; n = 21-23 worms in each strain). B) Microfluidic EPG recordings show that pumping pattern in kqt-1(aw3) mutants is arrhythmic, with frequent drops in frequency. C) Overlay of first 50 pumps of recordings show that pump duration is higher in kqt-1(aw3) and kqt-3(aw1) animals than in N2s. Pumps are showed aligned on E spikes, which occur when the pharynx is fully contracted. D) Duration histogram illustrating the probability of occurrence of inter-pump interval (E to E duration) for each mutant strain. Histograms were binned to 4 ms width and normalized to reach an area underneath the curve equal to 1 (duration 100% likelihood to occur). In kqt-1(aw3)) animals, the time between two pumps is significantly increased compared to N2s (p < 0.01). PY - 2016 JO - microPublication Biology ER -