Journal: Integrative Organismal Biology
Article Title: Peptidergic Modulation of the Lobster Cardiac System Has Opposing Action on Neurons and Muscles
doi: 10.1093/iob/obaf002
Figure Lengend Snippet: Physiological approaches. The modulatory effects of myosuppressin on cardiac muscle were assessed in two ways: ( A ) measuring changes in glutamate-evoked muscle contractions, and ( B ) measuring changes in the postsynaptic responses (excitatory junction potentials; EJPs) that were evoked by stimulating the terminal segment of the posterior lateral motor nerve that innervates the transverse muscle (TM). ( A ) Photograph of the dissected lobster heart that has been cut along the ventral, rostral–caudal axis to reveal the cardiac ganglion (CG) and associated cardiac muscles. The preparation was stained using methylene blue to visualize nerve and muscle tissue. A force transducer (FT) was used to measure contractions in one of the TM. Contractions were evoked in the absence of the CG (dissected out; indicated by the “X” over the CG) via focal application of glutamate (Glut, 5.5 × 10 −4 M). A representative force transducer trace is shown below the photograph with blue arrows indicating three instances of focally applied glutamate. ( B ) The same photograph used in (A) to show a schematic of how postsynaptic excitatory junction potentials (EJPs) were recorded. Similar to (A) , the CG was dissected away from the heart; however, in this approach, a segment of terminal nerve (no neurons present) was left intact so that a suction electrode (Stim.) could be used to stimulate the motor nerve. In this way, we were able to record single EJPs from the TM fibers using a sharp electrode (schematic on the right). EJPs were then amplified and recorded; an example recording is shown below the photograph with teal arrows indicating when each nerve stimulus was delivered (voltage transients are visible on the voltage trace).
Article Snippet: Glass suction electrodes pulled on a DMZ-Universal Puller (Zeitz-Instrumente Vertriebs GmbH, Planegg, Germany) were hand cut and fire polished using a microforge (MF-830 Narishige, Tokyo, Japan) to have a 100-μm opening at the tip.
Techniques: Muscles, Staining, Amplification