Data from: Distributed rhythm generators underlie Caenorhabditis elegans forward locomotion

Coordinated rhythmic movements are ubiquitous in animal locomotory, feeding, and circulatory systems. In many organisms, a chain of neural oscillators underlies the generation of rhythmic waves. In C. elegans, the nature of wave generation has been poorly understood; in particular, it has been unclear where in the locomotor circuit rhythm generation occurs, and whether there exists more than one such generator. We used targeted optogenetic manipulation and laser ablation experiments to probe the nature of rhythm generation in the locomotor circuit. We found that multiple sections of forward locomotor circuitry are capable of independently generating rhythms. By perturbing different components of the motor circuit, we localize the source of multiple secondary rhythm generators to cholinergic motor neurons in the midbody. Using rhythmic optogenetic perturbation we demonstrate bidirectional entrainment between different sections of the body. These results show that like the vertebrate spinal cord, the C. elegans motor circuit contains multiple oscillators that normally coordinate their activity to generate behavior. Our work opens the possibility of a genetic and neural dissection of how rhythmic locomotion is generated, propagated, and modulated.