Meeting Abstract

79.2  Sunday, Jan. 6  The effect of morphological variation on the sensitivity of the lateral line system in zebafish larvae (Danio rerio) VAN TRUMP, WJ*; YIP, KD; MCHENRY, MJ; Univ. of California, Irvine; Univ. of California, Irvine; Univ. of California, Irvine wvantrum@uci.edu

The mechanosensors of the lateral line, called neuromasts, are comprised of bundles of hair cells with kinocilia that project into a gelatinous cupula. The morphology of the cupula determines how fluid forces are transduced into neurobiological signals by the hair cells. It is unknown how morphological variation among the cupulae of neuromasts affects their sensitivity. Therefore, we measured the cupular morphology of larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) and calculated their sensitivity based on a mathematical model of their mechanics. We found that cupula height had nearly a 9-fold range in variation that was not correlated with body position. These morphological differences were predicted to cause neuromast sensitivity to vary by a range of more than an order of magnitude. These findings suggest that morphological variation in superficial neuromasts may serve to enhance the dynamic range and provide a broad frequency response for the lateral line system.