Rules for neural development revealed by chimaeric sensory systems in crickets.
Many sensory systems are organized so that the afferent projection forms a topographic map of the sensory surface within the central nervous system (CNS). The information necessary to create such a map may be available to the neuronal cell body based on its position in the receptor array, and this 'positional information' is translated into an axonal arborization in the proper part of the CNS. To study how the location of a cell body within the sensory surface determines the termination pattern of its axon within the CNS, we have transplanted epidermis, containing identified sensory neurones, from a black cricket to a tan cricket. As we report here, when epidermis is transplanted to an unusual location in the receptor array, newly generated neurones are produced along the borders of the graft. These neurones arborize in locations that are appropriate neither to their new position nor to their original position in the array, but rather to a position somewhere in between. This is direct evidence for the idea that positional information guides the differentiation and ultimately the synaptic connections of insect sensory neurones.
D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000502:physiology* / Q000637:transplantation / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009987:Orthoptera / Q000502:physiology*; D012867:Skin / Q000294:innervation; D013045:Species Specificity