This study investigated the functional morphology of the blubber that forms the caudal keels of the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). Blubber is a pliant biocomposite formed by adipocytes and structural fibers composed of collagen and elastic fibers. Caudal keels are dorsally and ventrally placed triangular wedges of blubber that define the hydrodynamic profile of the porpoise tailstock. Mechanical tests on carcasses demonstrate that when keels are bent, they strain nonuniformly along their lengths, with highest strains just caudal to the dorsal fin and lowest at the insertion of the flukes. Therefore, caudal keels undergo nonuniform longitudinal deformation while maintaining a stable, triangular cross-sectional shape. Polarizing and transmitted light microscopy techniques were used to investigate blubber's 3D fiber architecture along the length of the dorsal keel. The triangular cross-sectional shape of the keel appears to be maintained by structural fibers oriented to act as tensile stays. The construction of the blubber composite is regionally specific :structural fiber densities and diameters are higher in the relatively stiff caudal region of the keel than in the more deformable cranial keel region. The orientations of structural fibers also change along the length of the keel. Cranially, no fibers are oriented along the long axis, whereas a novel population of longitudinally oriented fibers reinforces the keel at the insertion of the flukes. Thus, differences in the distribution and orientation of structural fibers contribute to the regionally specific mechanical properties of the dorsal keel.

SUMMARY In cold-blooded species the efficacy of neuromuscular function depends both on the thermal environmental of the animal's habitat and on the concentrations of modulatory hormones circulating within the animal's body. The goal of this study is to examine how temperature variation within an ecologically relevant range affects neuromuscular function and its modulation by the neurohormone serotonin (5-HT) in Homarus americanus, a lobster species that inhabits a broad thermal range in the wild. The synaptic strength of the excitatory and inhibitory motoneurons innervating the lobster dactyl opener muscle depends on temperature, with the strongest neurally evoked muscle movements being elicited at cold (<5°C) temperatures. However, whereas neurally evoked contractions can be elicited over the entire temperature range from 2 to >20°C, neurally evoked relaxations of resting muscle tension are effective only at colder temperatures at which the inhibitory junction potentials are hyperpolarizing in polarity. 5-HT has two effects on inhibitory synaptic signals: it potentiates their amplitude and also shifts the temperature at which they reverse polarity by approximately +7°C. Thus 5-HT both potentiates neurally evoked relaxations of the muscle and increases the temperature range over which neurally evoked muscle relaxations can be elicited. Neurally evoked contractions are maximally potentiated by 5-HT at warm (18°C) temperatures; however, 5-HT enhances excitatory junction potentials in a temperature-independent manner. Finally, 5-HT strongly increases resting muscle tension at the coldest extent of the temperature range tested (2°C) but is ineffective at 22°C. These data demonstrate that 5-HT elicits several temperature-dependent physiological changes in the passive and active responses of muscle to neural input. The overall effect of 5-HT is to increase the temperature range over which neurally evoked motor movements can be elicited in this neuromuscular system.)

Lamellar and tubular inclusion bodies in the cell vacuole became more numerous as the severity of plant stunting was increased. In normal-appearing greenhouse plants, only a few of these inclusions were seen. In vacuoles of the severely stunted plants, much larger quantities of inclusion bodies were observed. In severely stunted plants, lamellar inclusions occurred that contained osmiophilic globules along the lamellar strands. These types of lamellar inclusions were also seen accumulating in the starch cavities of chloroplasts. From these observations, we postulated that a cell, with a given capacity to produce membrane material, produces membranous material in anticipation of growth. When the cell does not grow, owing to stunting, this excess of membrane material forms the large number of inclusion bodies seen in the vacuoles of stunted cells.

The crustacean dactyl opener neuromuscular system has been studied extensively as a model system that exhibits several forms of synaptic plasticity. We report the ultrastructural features of the synapses on dactyl opener of the lobster (Homarus americanus) as determined by examination of serial thin sections. Several innervation sites supplied by an inhibitory motoneuron have been observed without nearby excitatory innervation, indicating that excitatory and inhibitory inputs to the muscle are not always closely matched. The ultrastructural features of the lobster synapses are generally similar to those described previously for the homologous crayfish muscle, with one major distinction: few dense bars are seen at the presynaptic membranes of these lobster synapses. The majority of the lobster neuromuscular synapses lack dense bars altogether, and the mean number of dense bars per synapse is relatively low. In view of the finding that the physiology of the lobster dactyl opener synapses is similar to that reported for crayfish, these ultrastructural observations suggest that the structural complexity of the synapses may not be a critical factor determining synaptic plasticity.