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Electrical and structural properties of crayfish claw motoneurons in an isolated claw-ganglion preparation

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Summary

  1. 1.

    An isolated claw-ganglion preparation of the crayfish is described in which reflex activity is maintained for eight hours or more.

  2. 2.

    Intracellular recording and cobalt injection have made it possible to locate and characterize the claw motoneurons. Soma recordings show attenuated axon spikes of 5–10 mV amplitude and subthreshold potentials of the same magnitude.

  3. 3.

    The fast closer excitor (FCE) receives subthreshold excitation in parallel with the slow closer excitor (SCE) and the opener inhibitor (OI) even though it seldom fires.

  4. 4.

    IPSP's are recorded in the opener excitor (OE) concurrent with OI spikes.

  5. 5.

    Cobalt injection reveals a parallel dendritic structure among the three synergists FCE, SCE and OI, and a distinctly different dendritic distribution for OE. The soma siza ranking: OI< OE≦FCE = SCE is apparent.

  6. 6.

    The results are discussed and compared with other arthropod systems with regard to the relation between soma size and electrical functions, distribution of somata and dendrites, and effects of cobalt on electrical functioning. A conflict with previous work on this system is discussed.

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Author notes

  1. Theodore J. Wiens

    Present address: Department of Zoology, University of Manitoba, R3T 2N2, Winnipeg, Man, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, M5S 1A1, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Theodore J. Wiens

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  1. Theodore J. Wiens
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It is a pleasure to thank Dr. Harold Atwood for laboratory facilities, valuable advice and criticism of the manuscript. I am also grateful to Drs. Joan Bryan and Milton Charlton and to Juan Acosta-Urquidi and Joseph Bloom for helpful discussions and suggestions. The work was supported by the National Research Council of Canada through a Post-doctoral Fellowship to me and a grant to Dr. Harold Atwood.

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Wiens, T.J. Electrical and structural properties of crayfish claw motoneurons in an isolated claw-ganglion preparation. J. Comp. Physiol. 112, 213–233 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00606540

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