Under experimental conditions, virtually all behaviors of Caenorhabditis elegans are achieved by combinations of simple locomotion, including forward, reversal movement, turning by deep body bending, and resting. Here, we describe how the worm regulates these four locomotion during salt chemotaxis and acidic pH avoidance behaviors. Although, the behavioral maneuvers (klinokinesis and kilinotaxis) that the worm used during chemotaxis and avoidance were similar, the mechanisms underlying the behavioral decision making according to the sensory information were different between these two behaviors.

The use of fluorescence with a wavelength over-1000-nm (OTN) in near infrared (NIR) range has attracted more and more interests of biomedical researchers since several centimeters observation depth could be achieved in the OTN-NIR, which is ten times more compared to that in visible range. The authors have developed microscopic and small animal (in vivo) imaging systems along with the OTN-NIR fluorescent imaging probes. This paper will review the development of the imaging systems together with potential fluorescent materials in the OTN-NIR range.

Protein-protein interactions are fundamental for all biological phenomena. The hub proteins interacting with a number of partner proteins play the vital role in the protein-protein interaction network. We investigated the subcellular localization of proteins in the network, and found that the proteins localized in the multiple subcellular compartments, especially the nucleus and cytoplasm, tend to be hub proteins. Examination on keywords associated with the proteins suggested that those related to post-translational modifications (PTMs) and transcriptions contributed to numerous interactions. Triggered by PTMs in the intrinsically disordered regions, they change interaction partners in the protein complex, and are translocated from cytoplasm to nucleus.

Hybrid approaches combine computational modeling techniques with low-resolution structural data. Such approaches have proven to be powerful tools to obtain new 3D structural and dynamical information on biological systems. Currently, major applications focus on cryo-EM data. Methods and some applications to construct atomic structural models of new functional states will be reviewed. In addition, possible extension to data from X-ray free electron laser, which currently provides low-resolution data, will be discussed.