Neuromuscular properties of the quintuply innervated flexor muscle in lobster limbs

Abstract

The flexor muscle of the lobster's walking leg was shown by enzyme histochemistry and electrophysiology to display a regional segregation of fibre types: medial fibres have a higher ATPase activity, lower oxidative capacity, and shorter membrane time constant than peripheral fibres lying near the cuticle. The muscle was confirmed to receive one inhibitory and four excitatory motor axons. As judged by the properties of their output excitatory junctional potentials (ejp's), the four excitors lie along the fast-to-slow gradient defined by the two specialized excitors of dually excited muscles. The Fα axon produces initially large ejp's which facilitate weakly or antifacilitate; they are similar to those of fast axons in other muscles. The Fρ axon at the other end of the spectrum produces strongly facilitating ejp's which are initially small, resembling those of known slow axons. The Fβ and Fγ axons show intermediate properties. The inhibitor, which is the common inhibitor of all leg muscles, innervates preferentially the more tonic muscle fibres, as does Fρ. Muscle fibres were observed to receive anywhere from one to five efferents, most receiving two to four. Serial electron microscopic observations in several regions revealed a rich supply of synaptic terminals, usually comprising a single inhibitory terminal and two or three excitatory ones. The inhibitory terminal typically has a few large synapses, each with more than one active site. Excitatory terminals, on the other hand, have many more smaller synapses, each with at least one active site. Although excitatory and inhibitory terminals were often closely juxtaposed, no synaptic interactions were observed between them.