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Neuronal development in larval mussel Mytilus trossulus (Mollusca: Bivalvia)

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Abstract

Although our understanding of neuronal development in Trochozoa has progressed substantially in recent years, relatively little attention has been paid to the bivalve molluscs in this regard. In the present study, the development of FMRFamide-, serotonin- and catecholamine-containing cells in the mussel, Mytilus trossulus, was examined using immunocytochemical and histofluorescent techniques. Neurogenesis starts during the trochophore stage at the apical extreme with the appearance of one FMRFamide-like immunoreactive (lir) and one serotonin-lir sensory cell. Later, five FMRFamide-lir and five serotonin-lir apical sensory cells appear, and their basal fibres form an apical neuropil. Fibres of two lateral FMRFamide-lir apical cells grow posteriorly and at the time that they reach the developing foot, the first FMRFamide-lir neurons of the pedal ganglia also appear. Subsequently, FMRFamide-lir fibres grow further posteriorly and reach the caudal region where neurons of the developing visceral ganglia then begin to appear. In contrast, the five apical serotonin-lir neurons do not appear to project outside the apical neuropil until the late veliger stage. Catecholamine-containing cells are first detected in the veliger stage where they appear above the oesophagus, and subsequently in the velum, foot, and posterior regions. Though neural development in M. trossulus partly resembles that of polyplacophorans in the appearance of the early FMRFamidergic elements, and of scaphopods in the appearance of the early serotonergic elements, the scenario of neural development in M. trossulus differs considerably from that of other Trochozoa (bivalves, gastropods, polyplacophorans, scaphopods and polychaetes) studied to date.

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Acknowledgments

The financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) (Grants 06-04-96039 to NAO and 06-04-49401 to LPN), Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Grant 06-II-CO-06-025 to NAO, Canadian Space Agency contract 9-02-359 and a Discovery Grant 38863-02 from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to RPC are gratefully acknowledged. We also thank Drs. Ellen Kenchington and Daniel Jackson at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography for supplying some of the larvae used in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Developmental Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119334, Russia

    Elena E. Voronezhskaya & Leonid P. Nezlin

  2. Institute of Marine Biology, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, 690041, Russia

    Nellia A. Odintsova

  3. Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, B3H 4H7, Canada

    Jasmine T. Plummer & Roger P. Croll

  4. Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 1A8, Canada

    Jasmine T. Plummer

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  1. Elena E. Voronezhskaya
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  2. Leonid P. Nezlin
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  3. Nellia A. Odintsova
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  4. Jasmine T. Plummer
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  5. Roger P. Croll
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Correspondence to Roger P. Croll.

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Voronezhskaya, E.E., Nezlin, L.P., Odintsova, N.A. et al. Neuronal development in larval mussel Mytilus trossulus (Mollusca: Bivalvia). Zoomorphology 127, 97–110 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-007-0055-z

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