At 500 nM, high-degree half connection concentration was below a matched receptor profile range in the 2024 C. elegans short-range peptide map

We tested whether a dense high-degree core in an inferred peptide map exceeds a reference that keeps complete receptor profiles. We used the February 2024 C. elegans map, expression threshold 4, 302 neuron labels, 127 expression groups and 92 molecular gene matches at 500 nM. The main graph excluded equal endpoints and pairs within one expression group. It had 30,824 edges. The reference exchanged whole receptor profiles only between groups with equal receptor counts and equal neuron copy counts. Peptide profiles, molecular matches and anatomy stayed fixed. Each graph selected its own 151-neuron core, with exact averaging at degree ties. Core density divided by whole-map density was 2.0431. In 20,000 independent assignments, the reference mean was 2.1031 and its central 95 percent range was 2.0585–2.1513. The recorded ratio was 2.85 percent below that mean. The two-sided reference tail value was 0.00580. Absolute core density stayed inside its reference range. The ratio was also below its range when within-group pairs were kept or broad cell type was matched. It was inside the range at 100 nM and in mid- and long-range checks. Thus this result depends on the setting. All 80,000 sampled core scores passed a second calculation. A clean process reproduced all numerical records. The package preserves source files, provenance, code, assignments, per-neuron results and figures. This reference changes neuron degrees and does not repeat a fixed-degree rich-club test. The results describe potential interactions in one map, not measured signaling or differences between animals.

connectome · Caenorhabditis elegans · neuropeptide · receptor expression · high-degree core · conditional permutation · rich club · reproducible research