Neuronal Processing of Chemical Information in Crustaceans

Schmidt, Manfred; Mellon, DeForest

doi:10.1007/978-0-387-77101-4_7

Cited by 62 publications

(147 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…This method is thought to record selectively from non-aesthetasc (distributed) chemoreceptor neurons (e.g. Caprio and Derby, 2008;Schmidt and Mellon, 2011).…”

Section: Preparation and Electrophysiological Recordingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Defense through sensory inactivation: sea hare ink reduces sensory and motor responses of spiny lobsters to food odors

Love-Chezem

Aggio

Derby

2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYAntipredator defenses are ubiquitous and diverse. Ink secretion of sea hares (Aplysia) is an antipredator defense acting through the chemical senses of predators by different mechanisms. The most common mechanism is ink acting as an unpalatable repellent. Less common is ink secretion acting as a decoy (phagomimic) that misdirects predatorsʼ attacks. In this study, we tested another possible mechanism -sensory inactivation -in which ink inactivates the predatorʼs reception of food odors associated with would-be prey. We tested this hypothesis using spiny lobsters, Panulirus argus, as model predators. Ink secretion is composed of two glandular products, one being opaline, a viscous substance containing concentrations of hundreds of millimolar of total free amino acids. Opaline sticks to antennules, mouthparts and other chemosensory appendages of lobsters, physically blocking access of food odors to the predatorʼs chemosensors, or over-stimulating (short term) and adapting (long term) the chemosensors. We tested the sensory inactivation hypotheses by treating the antennules with opaline and mimics of its physical and/or chemical properties. We compared the effects of these treatments on responses to a food odor for chemoreceptor neurons in isolated antennules, as a measure of effect on chemosensory input, and for antennular motor responses of intact lobsters, as a measure of effect on chemically driven motor behavior. Our results indicate that opaline reduces the output of chemosensors by physically blocking reception of and response to food odors, and this has an impact on motor responses of lobsters. This is the first experimental demonstration of inactivation of peripheral sensors as an antipredatory defense. Supplementary material available online at

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“…This method is thought to record selectively from non-aesthetasc (distributed) chemoreceptor neurons (e.g. Caprio and Derby, 2008;Schmidt and Mellon, 2011).…”

Section: Preparation and Electrophysiological Recordingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…and C.D.D., unpublished observations). The antennules of spiny lobsters have 10 types of setae comprising two major types and pathways ; reviewed by Caprio and Derby, 2008;Schmidt and Mellon, 2011). The aesthetascs are unimodal chemosensilla located in a dense tuft located on the ventral and distal half of the antennular lateral flagella.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defense through sensory inactivation: sea hare ink reduces sensory and motor responses of spiny lobsters to food odors

Love-Chezem

Aggio

Derby

2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…] some of these interneurons extend dendritic branches to the lateral antennular neuropil, a deutocerebral target for the axons of bimodal antennular sensilla in both decapods Schmidt and Mellon, 2010) and stomatopods (Derby et al, 2003).…”

Section: Aesthetasc Sensillamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Near-field hydrodynamic receptor sensilla that detect fluid movement are present over a large proportion of the decapod body surface, including the cephalothorax (Mellon, 1963), the tailfan (Wiese, 1976;Douglass and Wilkens, 1998), the first antennae, or antennules, (Mellon and Christisen-Lagay, 2008;Mellon, 2010;Mellon and Abdul Hamid, 2012) and the 2nd antennae (Wilkens et al, 1996). Sensors subserving distributed chemosensitivity (Schmidt and Mellon, 2010), usually occurring as bimodal chemomechanosensitive sensilla (Mellon, 2007), occur on the pereiopods, including the claws, the maxillae, maxillipeds and mandibles, the antennules and probably on the second antennae as well (Altner et al, 1983;Derby and Atema, 1982;Derby, 1989). Although several studies have elucidated the functional capabilities of the statocysts, the organs of balance and angular acceleration on the basal segment of the antennules in all decapod crustaceans (Cohen, 1955;Sandeman and Okajima, 1972), in this Commentary I will confine my discussion to the integration of chemical and mechanical inputs from sensilla found specifically on the antennular flagella, primarily from studies on a few decapod crustaceans.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smelling, feeling, tasting and touching: behavioral and neural integration of antennular chemosensory and mechanosensory inputs in the crayfish

Mellon

2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SummaryCrustaceans possess two pairs of prominent, movable sense organs on the rostral aspect of their bodies termed antennae: (1) a relatively short, usually bifurcate pair, the 1st antennae, also referred to as antennules, and (2) a much longer, uniramous pair, the 2nd antennae, or just ʻantennaeʼ. The antennules are equipped with diverse arrays of six or more types of cuticular setae, most of which are believed to have a sensory function. Axons from these structures course within the antennular nerve to the deutocerebrum, a large middle brain region that is known to receive chemoreceptor and mechanoreceptor inputs. In crayfish, axons from two kinds of single sensory-function setae, the olfactory receptor aesthetasc sensilla and as yet unidentified hydrodynamic sensilla, on the lateral antennular flagellum terminate, respectively, within the ipsilateral olfactory lobe and the lateral antennular neuropil of the deutocerebrum, where their activity generates synaptic potentials in local interneurons having dendritic fields that span both of those regions. It has been suggested that the short-latency hydrodynamic input gates or otherwise supplements the olfactory input signals. Much less is known about the functional capabilities of the other sensillar types on the antennular flagella, including the bimodal sensilla: how their inputs are distributed to the various neuropils of the deutocerebrum, whether they target common or separate brain neurons, and the nature, if any, of their functional relationships to the aesthetasc and hydrodynamic sensilla. Integrated processing of chemical and hydrodynamic signals undoubtedly plays an important role in locating odorant sources, perhaps by detecting boundaries of odorant plumes (tropotactic discrimination); other less-plausible strategies include time averaging of turbulent odorant signals and determination of concentration slopes within turbulence-generated odorant patches. These gaps in our understanding present important, but surmountable, experimental challenges for the future.

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“…In the olfactory pathway, olfactory neurons within the aesthetascs project into a synaptic region of the midbrain called the olfactory lobe which is organized in dense regions called glomeruli . The non-olfactory chemoreceptive pathway involving contact chemoreception via bimodal sensilla projects onto a variety of synaptic areas distributed throughout the brain and ventral nerve cord (Schmidt & Mellon 2011).…”

Section: Two Signaling Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inspiration from Nature:Insights from Crustacean Chemical Sensors Can Lead to Successful Design of Artificial Chemical Sensors

Mead¹

2012

Advances in Chemical Sensors

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Neuronal Processing of Chemical Information in Crustaceans

Cited by 62 publications

References 73 publications

Defense through sensory inactivation: sea hare ink reduces sensory and motor responses of spiny lobsters to food odors

Defense through sensory inactivation: sea hare ink reduces sensory and motor responses of spiny lobsters to food odors

Smelling, feeling, tasting and touching: behavioral and neural integration of antennular chemosensory and mechanosensory inputs in the crayfish

Inspiration from Nature:Insights from Crustacean Chemical Sensors Can Lead to Successful Design of Artificial Chemical Sensors

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