Instituto Maimónides de Investigación Biomédica de Córdoba (IMIBIC) View Institution's Website 1 article published in JoVE Biology Osmotic Avoidance in Caenorhabditis elegans: Synaptic Function of Two Genes, Orthologues of Human NRXN1 and NLGN1, as Candidates for Autism Fernando Calahorro1,2, Encarna Alejandre1,2, Manuel Ruiz-Rubio1,2 1Departamento de Genética, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Córdoba, 2Instituto Maimónides de Investigación Biomédica de Córdoba (IMIBIC) Neurexins and neuroligins are membrane-neuron adhesion proteins which perform essential roles in synaptic differentiation and transmission. Neuroligin deficient mutants of C. elegans are defective in detecting osmotic strength, but when they also contain a mutation in the gene coding neurexin, they recover the wild type phenotype.