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Ultrastructure of the grasshopper proximal femoral chordotonal organ

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Summary

This paper, the first in a series concerning the neurobiology of sensory cilia, describes the ultrastructure of our chosen model system—the proximal femoral chordotonal organ (FCO) in pro-and mesothoracic grasshopper legs. The FCO is a bundle of 150–200 longitudinally oriented chordotonal sensilla. Each chordotonal sensillum is a mechano-receptive unit that contains two bipolar neurons whose dendrites bear sensory cilia. The structure of the sensory cilia leads us to suggest that they are motile cilia that respond to the mechanical stimulus with an “active stroke” which excites a transducer membrane at the dendrite tip.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado, USA

    D. T. Moran, J. C. Rowley III & F. G. Varela

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  1. D. T. Moran
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  2. J. C. Rowley III
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  3. F. G. Varela
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Additional information

This investigation was supported by Research Grants GB-36922 and BMS 73-06766 from the National Science Foundation; N Research Grant Number 1-R01-NS10662-01 CBY from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke; and NIH Research Grant Number 1 P07 RR00592 from the Division of Research Facilities and Resources. The authors thank Professors Keith Porter and Mircea Fotino, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, for so generously making the facilities of the Laboratory for High Voltage Electron Microscopy available to us. We thank Mr. George Wray for his careful instruction and assistance in high voltage electron microscopy.

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Moran, D.T., Rowley, J.C. & Varela, F.G. Ultrastructure of the grasshopper proximal femoral chordotonal organ. Cell Tissue Res. 161, 445–457 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00224135

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00224135

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