Daniel T. Choe

Environmental stress can remodel neural circuits, yet how such rewiring generates behavioral adaptation remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated how dauer-specific circuit remodeling alters nociceptive behavior. We discovered that dauers exhibit significantly shorter avoidance durations than adults. Through comparative connectomics, we observed a substantial expansion of gap junctions within the dauer nociceptive circuit and found that dauer neurons exhibit more transient activity dynamics as a result of this rewiring. Modeling neuronal activity demonstrated that removing dauer-specific connectivity constraints failed to reproduce transient characteristics, validating the functional role of dauer-specific gap junctions. Furthermore, introducing synthetic dauer-specific gap junctions into adults was sufficient to recapitulate dauer-like activity patterns and shorten avoidance duration. Despite extensive rewiring, avoidance initiation remained preserved across developmental stages. Our findings show that the dauer neural circuit is selectively rewired through gap junction remodeling to balance flexibility and stability for survival under stress.

As an animal matures, its neural circuit undergoes alterations, yet the developmental changes in intracellular organelles to facilitate these changes is less understood. Using 3D electron microscopy and deep learning, the study develops semi‐automated methods for reconstructing mitochondria in C . elegans and collected mitochondria reconstructions from normal reproductive stages and dauer, enabling comparative study on mitochondria structure within the neuromuscular system. It is found that various mitochondria structural properties in neurons correlate with synaptic connections and these properties are preserved across development in different neural circuits. To test the necessity of these universal mitochondria properties, the study examines the behavior in drp‐1 mutants with impaired mitochondria fission and discovers that it causes behavioral deficits. Moreover, it is observed that dauer neurons display distinctive mitochondrial features, and mitochondria in dauer muscles exhibit unique reticulum‐like structure. It is proposed that these specialized mitochondria structures may serve as an adaptive mechanism to support stage‐specific behavioral and physiological needs.