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Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 8, 1254-1263, Copyright © 1988 by Society for Neuroscience

ARTICLE

The central projections of the stretch receptor neurons of crayfish: structure, variation, and postembryonic growth

MJ Bastiani and B Mulloney
Zoology Department, University of California, Davis 95616.

Each stretch receptor neuron (SR) of the crayfish abdomen projects from its peripherally located soma an axon that enters the CNS through the second nerve (N2) of its segmental ganglion. Co2+ backfills of N2 revealed that this axon bifurcates, sending one branch to the brain and the other to the terminal abdominal ganglion. Each axon makes many short lateral branches as it traverses each of the other segmental ganglia, and has 2 major arborizations--one in the tritocerebrum of the brain and the other in the terminal abdominal ganglion, G6. These projections to G6 are described in detail. Individual SR axons from different segments were impaled in G6 with a Lucifer yellow-filled microelectrode, identified physiologically, and then filled to discover their structures. In a sample of more than 50 SR neurons, no systematic structural differences between the projections of phasic SR neurons and tonic SR neurons were observed. Three kinds of structural variability occurred in these projections to G6: unusual primary axon shape, long primary axon, and large terminal varicosities. Comparisons of SR neurons that originated in different segments revealed a segmental gradient in the probability of each structural variant. SR neurons from more anterior segments were more likely to show these structural variations. Comparisons of these variations in crayfish of different sizes showed that unusual primary axon shape and long primary axons were more probable in large crayfish than in small ones. Therefore, these variations are probably the products of postembryonic growth of the nervous system.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Iwasaki, A. Ohata, Y. Okada, H. Sekiguchi, and A. Niida Functional organisation of anterior thoracic stretch receptors in the deep-sea isopod Bathynomus doederleini: behavioural, morphological and physiological studies J. Exp. Biol., March 12, 2002; 204(20): 3411 - 3423. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H. Nakagawa and B. Mulloney Local Specification of Relative Strengths of Synapses between Different Abdominal Stretch-Receptor Axons and their Common Target Neurons J. Neurosci., March 1, 2001; 21(5): 1645 - 1655. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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