Dataset Information

Leg amputation modifies coordinated activation of the middle leg muscles in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus.

ABSTRACT: Insects alter their walking pattern in order to respond to demands of an ever-changing environment, such as varying ground surface textures. They also exhibit resilient and flexible ability to retain the capacity to walk even after substantial changes in their body properties, e.g. leg amputation. While the motor control paradigm governing the inter-leg coordination in such adaptive walking has been extensively described in past studies, the mechanism remains unknown. Here, we examined this question by using the cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus), which shows a tetrapod/tripod gait on a flat surfaces, like many other insects. We performed leg amputation experiments to investigate modifications of leg movements and coordination of muscle activities. We simultaneously recorded (1) the leg movements, locomotion velocity, and body rotation and (2) the leg movements and leg muscles activities before and after leg amputation. Crickets displayed adaptive coordination of leg movement patterns in response to amputations. The activation timings of levator muscles in both middle legs tended to synchronize in phase when both legs were amputated at the coxatrochanteral joint. This supports the hypothesis that an intrinsic contralateral connection within the mesothoracic ganglion exists, and that mechanosensory feedback from the legs override this connection, resulting in the anti-phase movement of a normal gait.

SUBMITTER: Owaki D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7809211 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Leg amputation modifies coordinated activation of the middle leg muscles in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus.

Owaki Dai D Aonuma Hitoshi H Sugimoto Yasuhiro Y Ishiguro Akio A

Scientific reports 20210114 1

Insects alter their walking pattern in order to respond to demands of an ever-changing environment, such as varying ground surface textures. They also exhibit resilient and flexible ability to retain the capacity to walk even after substantial changes in their body properties, e.g. leg amputation. While the motor control paradigm governing the inter-leg coordination in such adaptive walking has been extensively described in past studies, the mechanism remains unknown. Here, we examined this ques ...[more]

PMID: 33446762

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Opsins are key proteins in animal photoreception. Together with a light-sensitive group, the chromophore, they form visual pigments which initiate the visual transduction cascade when photoactivated. The spectral absorption properties of visual pigments are mainly determined by their opsins, and thus opsins are crucial for understanding the adaptations of animal eyes. Studies on the phylogeny and expression pattern of opsins have received considerable attention, but our knowledge about insect visual opsins is still limited. Up to now, researchers have focused on holometabolous insects, while general conclusions require sampling from a broader range of taxa. We have therefore investigated visual opsins in the ocelli and compound eyes of the two-spotted cricket Gryllus bimaculatus, a hemimetabolous insect. RESULTS:Phylogenetic analyses place all identified cricket sequences within the three main visual opsin clades of insects. We assign three of these opsins to visual pigments found in the compound eyes with peak absorbances in the green (515 nm), blue (445 nm) and UV (332 nm) spectral range. Their expression pattern divides the retina into distinct regions: (1) the polarization-sensitive dorsal rim area with blue- and UV-opsin, (2) a newly-discovered ventral band of ommatidia with blue- and green-opsin and (3) the remainder of the compound eye with UV- and green-opsin. In addition, we provide evidence for two ocellar photopigments with peak absorbances in the green (511 nm) and UV (350 nm) spectral range, and with opsins that differ from those expressed in the compound eyes. CONCLUSIONS:Our data show that cricket eyes are spectrally more specialized than has previously been assumed, suggesting that similar adaptations in other insect species might have been overlooked. The arrangement of spectral receptor types within some ommatidia of the cricket compound eyes differs from the generally accepted pattern found in holometabolous insect taxa and awaits a functional explanation. From the opsin phylogeny, we conclude that gene duplications, which permitted differential opsin expression in insect ocelli and compound eyes, occurred independently in several insect lineages and are recent compared to the origin of the eyes themselves.

Dataset Information

Leg amputation modifies coordinated activation of the middle leg muscles in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus.

Publications

Leg amputation modifies coordinated activation of the middle leg muscles in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus.

Similar Datasets

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