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The Biological Bulletin, Vol 187, Issue 1 16-22, Copyright © 1994 by Marine Biological Laboratory

CELL BIOLOGY

Muscle and Nerve Terminal Fine Structure of a Primitive Crustacean, the Cephalocarid Hutchinsoniella macracantha

A. T. Read, R. R. Hessler and C. K. Govind
Life Sciences Division, Scarborough College, University of Toronto, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada M1C-1A4

Abdominal muscles of the cephalocarid Hutchinsoniella macracantha resemble the striated muscle fibers of other crustaceans, having regularly aligned sarcomeres that average 5 {mu}m in length; thick, wavy Z-lines; and orbits of eight thin filaments surrounding a thick filament. However, unlike most crustacean muscle fibers, the cephalocarid muscle fibers are not subdivided into myofibrils by elaboration of the longitudinally oriented sarcoplasmic reticulum. Consequently, elements of the transverse tubule and sarcoplasmic reticulum in the form of triads occur scattered over the entire fiber. Motor innervation is by means of scattered nerve terminals, populated with round synaptic vesicles, indicative of excitatory axons. By lacking myofibrils, the cephalocarid and ostracod muscle represents a much simpler condition than the myofibril-rich muscles of the other crustacean classes and signifies a primitive condition in its resemblance to the onycophoran muscle.




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Copyright © 1994 by the Marine Biological Laboratory.