Morphology of neuroglia in the antennal lobes and mushroom bodies of the brain of the honeybee.
We investigated the distribution and anatomical organization of glial cells in the antennal lobes and mushroom bodies of the honeybee. Reconstructions from serial sections, prepared according to the ethyl gallate method, revealed the entire morphology of glial cells in neuropiles, tracts, and the soma rind. The distribution of the glial cell bodies in the neuropiles was derived from the staining of cell nuclei with a fluorescent dye. There are glial cells of different shape in the soma rind which are wrapped around the neuronal cell bodies of the antennal lobes and the Kenyon cells of the mushroom bodies. Glial cells surround neuropilar areas such as the external and lateral sides of the glomeruli of the antennal lobes. Whereas we could not detect glia in the glomerular neuropile, glial cells with long processes are located in the core of the antennal lobe. Extensions of these glial cells also invade tracts containing the olfactory projection neurons. A layer of glial cells separates the mushroom body neuropile from the surrounding protocerebral neuropile. The neuropile of the mushroom bodies is clearly compartmented by glial cells. There is a high density of astrocyte-like glia in a column of the pedunculus which can be followed to the ventral part of the alpha-lobe. A network of mushroom body intrinsic glial cells separates the alpha-lobe from the beta-lobe and the pedunculus. This anatomical description of glial cell types in olfactory information processing pathways of an insect brain provides a framework for further physiological studies of neuroglia in dissociated cell culture.
Hähnlein
I
I
Institut für Neurobiologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
Bicker
G
G
D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D001921:Brain / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005260:Female; D017952:Ganglia, Invertebrate / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008297:Male; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009474:Neurons / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012679:Sense Organs / Q000648:ultrastructure