Neural circuit and genetic bases of behaviour in the planktonic larvae of Platynereis

We study the larval stages of the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii, a powerful experimental system for neural circuits in a zooplankton larva. With serial electron microscopy, we have reconstructed the entire nervous and effector systems of a Platynereis larva. We use neurogenetics, activity imaging, and behavioural experiments to understand circuit activity and how the nervous system controls behaviour and physiology. Platynereis is one of very few systems where these different approaches can be combined to study an entire nervous system. I will talk about circuits for the whole-body coordination of locomotor cilia and a hydrodynamic startle response for predator avoidance.

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