Anatomy and physiology of the swimming leg musculature in the blue crab,Callinectes sapidus

White, Adam; Spirito, Carl P.

doi:10.1080/10236247309386921

Cited by 27 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Crabs were sacrificed by removing the dorsal carapace. The dark levator muscles (Cochran, 1935;White and Spirito, 1973;Tse et al, 1983) were exposed by removal of the reproductive and digestive organs, gills and portions of the Consequently, there is expected to be a reduction in rates of aerobic processes, such as aerobic recovery following exercise, as fiber size increases during development. In large fibers of adult crustaceans anaerobic glycogenolysis occurs following contraction, presumably to speed up phases of the recovery process.…”

Section: Transmission Electron Microscopymentioning

confidence: 99%

Metabolic influences of fiber size in aerobic and anaerobic locomotor muscles of the blue crab,Callinectes sapidus

Johnson

Dillaman

Gay

et al. 2004

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARY Diameters of some white locomotor muscle fibers in the adult blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, exceed 500 μm whereas juvenile white fibers are <100 μm. It was hypothesized that aerobically dependent processes,such as metabolic recovery following burst contractions, will be significantly impeded in the large white fibers. In addition, dark aerobic fibers of adults,which rely on aerobic metabolism for both contraction and recovery, grow as large as the white fibers. These large aerobic fibers are subdivided, however,thus decreasing the effective diameter of each metabolic functional unit and enabling aerobic contraction. The two goals of this study were: (1) to characterize the development of subdivisions in the dark levator muscle fibers and (2) to monitor post-contractile metabolism as a function of fiber size in aerobic and anaerobic levator muscles. Dark levator muscle fibers from crabs ranging from <0.1 g to >190 g were examined with transmission electron microscopy to determine the density of mitochondria and subdivision diameters. Across all size classes, there was a constant mitochondrial fractional area(25% of the total subdivision area) and subdivision size (mean diameter of 36.5±2.7 μm). Thus, blue crab dark levator fibers are unusual in having metabolic functional units (subdivisions) that do not increase in size during development while the contractile functional units (fibers) grow hypertrophically. The body mass scaling of post-contractile lactate dynamics was monitored during recovery from anaerobic, burst exercise in white and dark muscle, and in hemolymph. There were no differences among size classes in lactate accumulation during exercise in either muscle. However, in white fibers from large crabs, lactate continued to increase after exercise, and lactate removal from tissues required a much longer period of time relative to smaller crabs. Differences in lactate removal among size classes were less pronounced in dark fibers, and post-contractile lactate accumulation was significantly higher in white than in dark fibers from large animals. These data suggest that the large white fibers invoke anaerobic metabolism following contraction to accelerate certain phases of metabolic recovery that otherwise would be overly slow. This implies that, in addition to the typical mass-specific decrease in oxidative capacity that accompanies increases in animal mass, aerobic metabolic processes become increasingly limited by surface area to volume and intracellular diffusion constraints in developing white muscle fibers.

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Section: Transmission Electron Microscopymentioning

confidence: 99%

Metabolic influences of fiber size in aerobic and anaerobic locomotor muscles of the blue crab,Callinectes sapidus

Johnson

Dillaman

Gay

et al. 2004

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…The most proximal pair of limb muscles, the promotor and remotor, also comprises multiple heads [White and Spirito, 1973;Bévengut et al, 1983;unpubl. observ.].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Separate rostral and caudal levator muscles occur in crabs [White and Spirito, 1973;MacMillan, 1975;Moffett, 1975;McVean and Findlay, 1976;Bévengut et al, 1983], including most likely C. sapidus (see below), lobsters [MacMillan, 1975;Ayers and Davis, 1977], hermit crabs [McVean and Findlay, 1976], and squat lobsters and crayfish [this study] (table 5), presumably out of necessity for limb autotomy. In general, the heads of the rostral levator muscle originate in the thorax and the heads of the caudal levator muscle originate in the coxa.…”

Section: Levator Musclesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When multiple muscle heads control one direction of movement at a single joint, as is the case for the most proximal, thoracico-coxal, as well as basal leg muscles, the question arises as to whether these heads should be considered a single muscle or separate muscles. We use an anatomical definition as have several other authors [McVean, 1973;White and Spirito, 1973;MacMillan, 1975;Ayers and Davis, 1977]. Heads that share one apodeme constitute one muscle ( fig.…”

Section: Anatomy Of Leg 2 Basal Musculaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The muscles controlling the two proximal leg joints, the promotor, remotor, levator, and depressor muscles, have not received as much attention although these joints are functionally very important in postural and locomotory behaviors [Evoy and Ayers, 1982;Kelly and Chapple, 1990;Müller and Cruse, 1991;Jamon and Clarac, 1995]. Furthermore, although the anatomy of the proximal leg muscles is known in detail for only a few decapod species [Schmidt, 1915;White and Spirito, 1973;McVean and Findlay, 1976;Ayers and Clarac, 1978;Bévengut et al, 1983;Tse et al, 1983], it is clear that the proximal muscles are anatomically much more complex than the distal muscles and often comprise multiple heads, or fiber bundles, with widely separated origins and sometimes separate insertions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Leg Depressor and Levator Muscles in the Squat Lobster Munida quadrispina (Galatheidae) and the Crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Astacidae) Have Multiple Heads with Potentially Different Functions

Antonse

Pau²

2000

Brain Behav Evol

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The proximal leg muscles of decapod crustaceans, controlling movements at the first two joints, are anatomically more complex than the better-studied distal leg muscles. Despite extensive research on their involvement in diverse behaviors, no complete descriptions of the anatomy and innervation of these muscles for any species have been published. We describe the anatomy and innervation of the depressor muscle in the second leg of the squat lobster Munida quadrispina and compare its anatomy with that of its homologue in the crayfish Procambarus clarkii and its antagonist, the levator, in both species. Of the six anatomically distinct heads comprising M. quadrispina’s depressor muscle, one arises in the coxa (coxal head) and five are bi-articular (cross two joints), arising from widely dispersed sites on the thoracic endophragmal skeleton (dorsal, sternal, caudal, ventral-rostral, ventral-caudal heads). The heads’ widely divergent force vectors are accommodated by the depressor apodeme’s bifurcation at a thin flexible point. In total, eighteen neurons with central somata were backfilled from nerve branches to the heads. The common inhibitor and at least one neuron of unknown function with rostro-lateral soma and extremely sparse neurites innervate all heads. The sixteen excitatory motoneurons’ somata are clustered in two locations, five rostral and eleven caudal to the neuropil. Rostral motoneurons innervate the two ventral heads (rostral and caudal). Their integrating segments lie rostral to those of the caudal group motoneurons and are straight or ‘Y’-shaped, the latter longer and larger in diameter. Both morphological types have one prominent medial neurite that crosses the midline and could allow direct interaction between bilateral pairs of rostral motoneurons. The caudal motoneurons provide partially shared innervation to the remaining four heads. Six provide exclusive innervation, one to the caudal head, two to the sternal head, and three to the bi-articular dorsal head and uni-articular coxal head which share innervation. Of the remaining five caudal motoneurons, two are shared by the caudal head and the dorsal-coxal pair of heads and three are shared by the caudal and sternal heads. P. clarkii has two depressor muscles; the rostral depressor has a single head morphologically similar to the ventral rostral head in M. quadrispina; the caudal depressor muscle has four heads (dorsal, coxal, caudal, sternal) that insert on the large caudal depressor apodeme. The overall organization of depressor muscle heads in P. clarkii and M. quadrispina is similar, taking into consideration the different internal and external thoracic anatomies and the different resting stances, horizontal and tilted, respectively. As in other species, M. quadrispina and P. clarkii have two levator muscles, each with an apodeme of complex structure attributable to the levators’ role in leg autotomy. The caudal levator arises in the coxa; it has two heads in M. quadrispina, but only one in P. clarkii. In both species the rostral levator ha...

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Central neuronal projections and neuromuscular organization of the basal region of the shore crab leg

Bévengut

Simmers

Clarac

1983

J of Comparative Neurology

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The musculature and associated skeleton, peripheral nervous system, and central projections of motor and sensory neurones of the two basal (thoracic and coxal) segments of the shore crab leg (fifth pereiopod, P5) were examined in vivo and with methylene blue or cobalt staining. Each of the four main basal muscles, promotor/remotor, levator/depressor, controlling the thoracico-coxal (T-C) and coxo-basal (C-B) limb joints, respectively, comprises several more or less discrete fibre bundles (total 14), with little morphological segregation of different functional groups. The innervation to the basal leg region is carried in two nerve roots arising from the thoracic ganglion. The anterior Th-Cx root carries both sensory and motor axons, while the posterior Th-Cx root is purely motor. Three previously undescribed sensory branches (two "epidermal" nerves and an "accessory" branch), in addition to that innervating the coxobasal chordotonal receptor, have been found in the distal part of the anterior Th-Cx root. Two clusters of 10 to 15 multipolar somata (diam. 30-125 micron) are located proximally at the bifurcation of the accessory nerve and distally where the latter enters the basipodite. The cell bodies (diameter 20-80 micron) of basal leg motoneurones (total ca. 30) lie in the dorsal cortex of the ganglion, with somata of functionally related motoneurones tending to form discrete structural groups. The morphology of individual motoneurones conforms to the general arthropod pattern. All are confined to the ipsilateral hemiganglion and their main neuropilar processes run parallel and in close apposition to each other with overlapping dendritic structures. Sensory projections arising from the CB chordotonal organ also ramify in the region of the neuropile invaded by motoneurones. The possible physiological significance of such structural associations within the CNS is discussed, as are the functional implications of basal limb anatomy in general.

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Anatomy and physiology of the swimming leg musculature in the blue crab,Callinectes sapidus

Cited by 27 publications

References 11 publications

Metabolic influences of fiber size in aerobic and anaerobic locomotor muscles of the blue crab,Callinectes sapidus

Metabolic influences of fiber size in aerobic and anaerobic locomotor muscles of the blue crab,Callinectes sapidus

The Leg Depressor and Levator Muscles in the Squat Lobster <i>Munida quadrispina</i> (Galatheidae) and the Crayfish <i>Procambarus clarkii</i> (Astacidae) Have Multiple Heads with Potentially Different Functions

Central neuronal projections and neuromuscular organization of the basal region of the shore crab leg

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