This readme file was generated on 2025-01-17 by Javier Huayta ------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------- Title of Dataset: Data from: Assessment of developmental neurotoxicology-associated alterations in neuronal architecture and function using Caenorhabditis elegans Author Contact Information (Name, Institution, Email, ORCID) Principal Investigator: Meyer, Joel N. Institution: Duke University Email: joel.meyer@duke.edu ORCID: 0000-0003-1219-0983 Date of data collection (single date, range, approximate date YYYYMMDD): 20220901-20241215 Geographic location of data collection: Duke University, Durham, NC Funding and grant numbers (if applicable): This work was funded by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Program (P42ES010356) and by the National Institutes of Health (R01ES034270). Abstract of primary manuscript (Huayta et al): Few of the many chemicals that regulatory agencies are charged with assessing for risk have been carefully tested for developmental neurotoxicity (DNT). To speed up testing efforts, as well as to reduce the use of vertebrate animals, great effort is being devoted to alternate laboratory models for testing DNT. A major mechanism of DNT is altered neuronal architecture resulting from chemical exposure during neurodevelopment. Caenorhabditis elegans is a nematode that has been extensively studied by neurobiologists and developmental biologists, and to a lesser extent by neurotoxicologists. The developmental trajectory of the nervous system in C. elegans is easily visualized, normally entirely invariant, and fully mapped. Therefore, we hypothesized that C. elegans could be a powerful in vivo model to test chemicals for the potential to alter developmental patterning of neuronal architecture. To test whether this might be true, we developed a novel C. elegans DNT testing paradigm that includes exposure throughout development, examines all major neurotransmitter neuronal types for architectural alterations, and tests behaviors specific to dopaminergic, cholinergic, and glutamatergic functions. We used this paradigm to characterize the effects of early-life exposures to the developmental neurotoxicants lead, cadmium, and benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) on dopaminergic, cholinergic, and glutamatergic architecture. We also assessed whether exposures would alter neuronal specification as assessed by expression of reporter genes diagnostic of specific neurotransmitters. We identified no cases in which the apparent neurotransmitter type of the neurons we examined changed, but many in which neuronal morphology was altered. We also found that neuron-specific behaviors were altered during C. elegans mid-adulthood for populations with measured morphological neurodegeneration in earlier stages. The functional changes were consistent with the morphological changes we observed in terms of type of neuron affected. We identified changes consistent with those reported in the mammalian DNT literature, strengthening the case for C. elegans as a DNT model, and made novel observations that should be followed up in future studies. -------------------- DATA & FILE OVERVIEW -------------------- File list (filenames, directory structure (for zipped files) and brief description of all data files): data_dictionary.xlsx growth_length.csv chemical_uptake.csv neurodegeneration.csv behavior.csv reproduction.csv -------------------------- METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION -------------------------- Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: Software- or Instrument-specific information needed to interpret the data, including software version numbers, packages or other dependencies: Experiments were conducted using a Keyence BZ-X710 microscope, an Agilent 7890A gas chromatography system, a 5975 mass spectrometer, ImageJ with the WormSizer add-in, and MATLAB R2023a (MATLAB 9.14). Environmental/experimental conditions: All worms were grown and kept at 20 °C during experiments. -------------------------- DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION -------------------------- Variable/field list: see data_dictionary.xlsx Value/attribute list: see data_dictionary.xlsx Missing data treatments (null, -99, na, etc.): blank cells represent where a given variable was not measured for that experiment. ------------------------- USE and ACCESS INFORMATION -------------------------- Data License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) Other Rights Information: To cite the data: Huayta, J., Seay, S., Laster III, J., Rivera Jr., N. A., Joyce, A. S., Ferguson, P. L., Hsu-Kim, H., Meyer, J. N. (2025). Data from: Assessment of developmental neurotoxicology-associated alterations in neuronal architecture and function using Caenorhabditis elegans. Duke Research Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.7924/r46118g9k.