Neuromuscular development of Aeolidiella stephanieae Valdez, 2005 (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Nudibranchia)

  • Background: Studies on the development of the nervous system and the musculature of invertebrates have become more sophisticated and numerous within the last decade and have proven to provide new insights into the evolutionary history of organisms. In order to provide new morphogenetic data on opisthobranch gastropods we investigated the neuromuscular development in the nudibranch Aeolidiella stephanieae Valdez, 2005 using immunocytochemistry as well as F-actin labelling in conjunction with confocal laser scanning microscopy (cLSM). Results: The ontogenetic development of Aeolidiella stephanieae can be subdivided into 8 stages, each recognisable by characteristic morphological and behavioural features as well as specific characters of the nervous system and the muscular system, respectively. The larval nervous system of A. stephanieae includes an apical organ, developing central ganglia, and peripheral neurons associated with the velum, foot and posterior, visceral part of the larva. The first serotonergic and FMRFamidergic neural structures appear in the apical organ that exhibits an array of three sensory, flask-shaped and two non-sensory, round neurons, which altogether disappear prior to metamorphosis. The postmetamorphic central nervous system (CNS) becomes concentrated, and the rhinophoral ganglia develop together with the anlage of the future rhinophores whereas oral tentacle ganglia are not found. The myogenesis in A. stephanieae begins with the larval retractor muscle followed by the accessory larval retractor muscle, the velar or prototroch muscles and the pedal retractors that all together degenerate during metamorphosis, and the adult muscle complex forms de novo. Conclusions: Aeolidiella stephanieae comprises features of the larval and postmetamorphic nervous as well as muscular system that represent the ground plan of the Mollusca or even the Trochozoa (e. g. presence of the prototrochal or velar muscle ring). On the one hand, A. stephanieae shows some features shared by all nudibranchs like the postmetamorphic condensation of the CNS, the possession of rhinophoral ganglia and the lack of oral tentacle ganglia as well as the de novo formation of the adult muscle complex. On the other hand, the structure and arrangement of the serotonergic apical organ is similar to other caenogastropod and opisthobranch gastropods supporting their sister group relationship.

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Metadaten
Author:Alen Kristof, Annette Klussmann-KolbGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-74391
URL:http://www.frontiersinzoology.com/content/7/1/5
DOI:https://doi.org/doi:10.1186/1742-9994-7-5
ISSN:1742-9994
Parent Title (English):Frontiers in zoology, 7.2010, article 5
Publisher:BioMed Central
Place of publication:London
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2010/02/18
Date of first Publication:2010/01/22
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2010/02/18
Volume:7
Issue:5
Page Number:24
First Page:1
Last Page:24
Note:
© 2010 Kristof and Klussmann-Kolb , licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Source:Frontiers in Zoology 2010, 7:5 ; doi:10.1186/1742-9994-7-5 ; http://www.frontiersinzoology.com/content/7/1/5
HeBIS-PPN:221155953
Institutes:Biowissenschaften / Biowissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 59 Tiere (Zoologie) / 590 Tiere (Zoologie)
Sammlungen:Sammlung Biologie / Sondersammelgebiets-Volltexte
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 2.0