spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Belanger, J. H.
Right arrow Articles by Orchard, I.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Belanger, J. H.
Right arrow Articles by Orchard, I.

Journal of Experimental Biology, Vol 174, Issue 1 321-342, Copyright © 1993 by Company of Biologists

JOURNAL ARTICLES

THE LOCUST OVIPOSITOR OPENER MUSCLE: PROPERTIES OF THE NEUROMUSCULAR SYSTEM

J. H. Belanger and I. Orchard

A new preparation for studying properties of neuromuscular transmission and neuromodulation in insects, the ventral opener muscle of the locust ovipositor, is described. It consists of the complete musculoskeletal apparatus of the ventral opener muscle and the associated abdominal ganglia containing the central pattern generator that drives oviposition digging. In this preparation it is possible to record simultaneously motoneurone activity, muscle electromyograms, intracellular muscle fibre activity and behaviourally relevant tension production. The muscle displays ultrastructural and physiological characteristics typical of insect intermediate-type fibres: abundant sarcoplasmic reticulum, active Ca2+-dependent membrane responses, phasic contractions when stimulated by high-potassium saline and a low twitch:tetanus ratio. Superfused glutamate (10-4 mol l- 1) and proctolin (10-8 mol l-1) induce contractions of the muscle, while GABA (10-4 mol l-1) reduces potassium-induced depolarizations. HPLC, bioassay and immunological methods show that proctolin is associated with all of the ventral ovipositor muscles, and combined back- filling/immunohistochemistry suggests that at least one of the ventral opener motoneurones is proctolinergic.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Exp. Biol.Home page
S Bevan and M Burrows
Maps of the somata of efferent neurones with axons in the lateral nerves of locust abdominal ganglia
J. Exp. Biol., January 11, 1999; 202(21): 2911 - 2923.
[Abstract] [PDF]


© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1993