Three-dimensional simulation of the Caenorhabditis elegans body and muscle cells in liquid and gel environments for behavioural analysis.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
; 373(1758)2018 09 10.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30201840
ABSTRACT
To better understand how a nervous system controls the movements of an organism, we have created a three-dimensional computational biomechanical model of the Caenorhabditis elegans body based on real anatomical structure. The body model is created with a particle system-based simulation engine known as Sibernetic, which implements the smoothed particle-hydrodynamics algorithm. The model includes an elastic body-wall cuticle subject to hydrostatic pressure. This cuticle is then driven by body-wall muscle cells that contract and relax, whose positions and shape are mapped from C. elegans anatomy, and determined from light microscopy and electron micrograph data. We show that by using different muscle activation patterns, this model is capable of producing C. elegans-like behaviours, including crawling and swimming locomotion in environments with different viscosities, while fitting multiple additional known biomechanical properties of the animal. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Connectome to behaviour modelling C. elegans at cellular resolution'.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Caenorhabditis elegans
/
Computational Biology
/
Hydrodynamics
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
Year:
2018
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: