William Schafer

Cellular and molecular mechanisms of behaviour

wschafer@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk
Personal group site

Elucidating the mechanisms by which nervous systems process information and generate behaviour is among the fundamental problems of biology. Ultimately, it is desirable to understand these processes at the most basic level, that of molecules and cells.

We are investigating these questions using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which has an anatomically simple and well-defined nervous system and is tractable to molecular and classical genetic analysis.

Using recently developed methods for in vivo optical neuroimaging, we are investigating how the activities of individual neurons correlate with behaviour, and how genes with interesting behavioural phenotypes affect the activities of individual neurons in defined neural circuits. In particular, we are interested in circuits mediating avoidance responses to touch and noxious chemical stimuli.

We are also investigating how behavioural plasticity caused by learning or chronic exposure to drugs is mediated at the level of individual cells.

Finally, we are interested in developing machine vision approaches for the rapid and consistent quantitation of behavioural phenotypes, which we plan to use for genome-wide phenotypic studies of C. elegans behavioural patterns.

Selected Papers

Chew YL, Tanizawa Y, Cho Y, Zhao B, Yu AJ Ardiel EL, Rabinowitch I, Bai J, Rankin CH, Lu H, Beets I, Schafer WR (2018)
An afferent neuropeptide system transmits mechanosensory signals triggering sensitization and arousal in C. elegans
Neuron 99: 1233–1246.
Chew YL, Grundy LJ, Brown AEX, Beets I, Schafer WR (2018)
Neuropeptides encoded by nlp-49 modulate locomotion, arousal and egg-laying behaviours in C. elegans via the receptor SEB-3
Phil Trans R Soc B 373: 20170368.
Yan, G., Vértes, P.E., Towlson, E.K., Chew, Y.L., Walker, D.S., Schafer, W.R. and Barabási, A-L. (2017)
Network control principles predict neuron function in the Caenorhabditis elegans connectome
Nature, 10.1038/nature24056.
Chew, Y.L., Walker, D.S., Towlson, E.K., Vértes, P.E., Yan, G., Barabási, A-L. and Schafer, W.R. (2017)
Recordings of Caenorhabditis elegans locomotor behaviour following targeted ablation of single motor neurons
Sci Data 4: 170156.
Bentley, B., Branicky, R.S., Barnes, C.L., Chew, Y.L., Yemini, E., Bullmore, E.T., Vértes, P.E. and Schafer, W.R. (2016)
The multilayer connectome of Caenorhabditis elegans
Plos Comput Biol 12(12): e1005283.
Rabinowitch, I., Chatzigeorgiou, M., Zhao, B., Treinin, M. and Schafer, W.R. (2014)
Rewiring neural circuits by the insertion of ectopic electrical synapses in transgenic C. elegans
Nature Communications 5: 4442.
Chatzigeorgiou, M., Bang, S., Hwang, S.W. and Schafer, W.R. (2013)
tmc-1 encodes a sodium-sensitive channel required for salt chemosensation in C. elegans.
Nature 494: 95-99.
Brown, A.E.X., Yemini, E.I., Grundy, L., Jucikas, T. and Schafer, W.R. (2013)
A dictionary of behavioral motifs reveals genes affecting C. elegans locomotion.
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110: 791-796.
Chatzigeorgiou, M. and Schafer, W.R. (2011)
Lateral facilitation between primary mechanosensory neurons controls nose touch perception in C. elegans.
Neuron 70: 299-309.
Chatzigeorgiou, M., Yoo, S., Watson, J.D., Lee, W.H., Spencer, C., Kindt, K.S., Hwang, S.W., Miller, D.M., Treinin, M., Driscoll, M. and Schafer, W.R. (2010)
Specific roles for DEG/ENaC and TRP channels in touch and thermosensation in C. elegans nociceptors.
Nature Neuosci 13: 861-868.
Suzuki, H., Thiele, T., Faumont, S., Ezcurra, M., Lockery, S. and Schafer, W.R. (2008)
Functional asymmetry in C. elegans salt taste neurons and its computational role in chemotaxis behaviour.
Nature 454: 114-117.

Group Members

Amy Courtney
Larissa Ferguson
Laura Grundy
Iris Hardege
Eva Kaulich
Lidia Ripoll Sanchez
Denise Walker
Xinyi Yang