In a fixed 2024 short-range C. elegans peptide map at 500 nM, 23,034 neuron pairs needed two gene losses to remove all routes

We tested whether a route can survive each single gene loss and still depend on a pair of genes. We used the 2 February 2024 C. elegans peptide map, expression threshold 4, the 500 nM assay cutoff, and the short-range model. A gene loss removed every channel that used that gene. Other map entries stayed fixed. We tested all 100 single losses and all 4,950 pairs of losses. Of 73,517 ordered neuron pairs that kept a route after each single loss, 23,034 (31.33 percent) lost every route after some pair of losses. For 1,581 pairs, at least one such cut left an output at the source and an input at the target. Two gene combinations accounted for 1,578 of these pairs. Both removed all 18 inward edges at the pharynx boundary. For 270 pairs, every original source output edge and target input edge remained. The broader range models had no cuts of this type at 500 nM. The package gives complete cut tables, graph certificates, code, input hashes, and repeat instructions. Independent graph checks and a complete repeat passed. These are exact results for fixed support maps. They do not show that mutant neurons lose a physiological response.

C. elegans · neuropeptide · gene loss · network reachability · minimal gene cut · pharynx · reproducibility