Summary
Intracellular recordings were made from the motor neurons which innervate the dorsal longitudinal flight muscle (DLM) inDrosophila, while a normal-appearing flight output pattern (induced using the temperature sensitive mutant,shibire ts1) was in progress. Intracellular recordings were made simultaneously from the DLM fibers, allowing physiological identification of the recorded neuron. Morphological identification of the neuron was made by horseradish peroxidase (HRP) injection at the end of the experiment.
This paper presents a morphological and physiological characterization of the DLM motor neurons.
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1.
The DLM motor neuron response consisted of a slowly rising prepotential followed by a spike.
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2.
Steady depolarization of the neuron increased the firing frequency, while hyperpolarization decreased or eliminated firing.
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3.
A short depolarization which interjected a spike into the spike train caused resetting of the neuron's timing. The duration of the reset interval appeared to be determined by the prior level of excitation reached by the neuron.
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4.
The presumed synaptic input(s) to these neurons appeared to be two (or more) rapidly firing inputs mediated by electrical rather than chemical junctions.
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5.
The somata of the DLM motor neurons innervating muscle fibers 1–4 (Mihályi 1936) lie in a cluster ventrolaterally in the outermost layer of the cortex near the border between the pro- and mesothoracic ganglia.
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Abbreviations
- DLM :
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dorsal longitudinal muscle;shi shibire ts1;
- HRP:
-
horseradish peroxidase
- PDMN :
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posterior dorsal mesothoracic nerve
- DAB :
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3,3′-diaminobenzidine tetrahydrochloride
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Koenig, J.H., Ikeda, K. Characterization of the intracellularly recorded response of identified flight motor neurons inDrosophila . J. Comp. Physiol. 150, 295–303 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00605019
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00605019