Meeting Abstract
The neural network underlying the locomotory system in Clione limacina, a pelagic marine gastropod, is an ideal system for investigating the mechanisms controlling rhythmic motor behaviors. Understanding the organization and modulation of this network is necessary to explain the variations in swimming behavior of this and other animals with rhythmic locomotory movements. Clione exhibits four different swimming states including passive sinking (no swimming activity), slow swimming, fast swimming, and startle/escape swimming. These different behaviors are influenced by several biologically active modulatory neurons, as well as by serotonin. Modulatory neurons have been identified in whole mount using immunohistochemical techniques, but we do not know which muscle groups they innervate in the wing tissue. Here we use conventional thick sectioning and electron microscopy to match each modulator with the muscle type found in the Clione wing. Light microscopy results indicate that the neuropeptides FMRFamide, SCPb and myomodulin are associated with the smooth retractor muscles, which produce retraction and inhibition of swimming. Similarly, serotonin and the neuropeptide buccalin are associated with the swim musculature.
