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Innervation of Crustacean Muscles

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Abstract

THE physiology of the striated muscle of Crustacea is known to differ in several respects from that of the vertebrates ; as, for example, in the peripheral location of the inhibitory process, and the presence of separate motor fibres for slow and fast contractions. The interpretation of these peculiar properties requires a knowledge of the histology of the neuromuscular system, in order to compare and contrast it with the mode of innervation of vertebrate muscle. Van Harraveld1 has put forward the view that each muscle fibre in the crustacean receives a great many endings from each of the different types of nerve fibre, motor and inhibitory, so that it is surrounded by a dense feltwork of axons, and has forty or more nerve endings on its surface. This view is reminiscent of that of Bethe2 and Tonner3, both of whom used a methylene blue staining method to demonstrate an extensive network of nerve axons in crustacean muscle. Unlike van Harraveld, however, they derived this network from a “sub-epithelial nerve plexus” and not directly from the central nervous system. On the other hand, D'Ancona4, working in Cajal's laboratory, gave a very different histological picture of the peripheral nervous system; he could only demonstrate one or two nerve endings on each nerve fibre, and no nerve network.

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References

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HOLMES, W. Innervation of Crustacean Muscles. Nature 151, 531–532 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151531b0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151531b0

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