Lobster mouthpart chemoreception
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Abstract
This is the first investigation of the spectral tuning properties of single chemoreceptor cells on the mouthparts of the lobster Homarus americanus. Based upon extracellular recordings of action potentials, we report on fifty-three cells identified with a 15-compound equimolar mixture of mostly amino acids in an artificial sea water background (applied mixture concentration 150 uM). Subsequently, all cells were tested with each compound separately. Cells were generally narrowly tuned to a single compound. Twenty-five percent of the cells sampled responded best to L-glutamate, 17 % to betaine, 11 % to taurine, and 9 % to NH4 . There were no consistent second best stimuli for any of these four cell populations. Two other populations were found, one responded best to hydroxy-L-proline and the other to L-arginine. Some cells responded to both compounds. Arginine sensitive cells (not necessarily "arginine-best" cells) generally responded also to a lesser degree to lysine. Hydroxy-L-proline sensitive cells tended to respond to a lesser degree to glycine. Among the lobster's chemoreceptive organs, the tuning of the maxilliped resembles the tuning of the walking legs more than the antennules.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University
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