Synaptic Interactions in Scorpion Peg Sensilla Appear to Maintain Chemosensory Neurons within Dynamic Firing Range

Synaptic Interactions in Scorpion Peg Sensilla Appear to Maintain Chemosensory Neurons within Dynamic Firing Range

Scorpions have elaborate chemo-tactile organs called pectines on their ventral mesosoma. The teeth of the comb-like pectines support thousands of minute projections called peg sensilla (a.k.a. “pegs”), each containing approximately 10 chemosensory neurons. Males use pectines to detect pheromones rel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Insects (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 12; no. 10; p. 904
Main Authors: Gaffin, Douglas D., Shakir, Safra F.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Basel MDPI AG 03-10-2021
MDPI
Subjects:
Chemoreception
Correlation analysis
Electrodes
electrophysiology
Feedback circuits
Females
Governors
Lymphocytes B
navigation
Neurons
Noise
Normalizing
Organs
pectines
Pheromones
Prey
Receivers & amplifiers
Sensilla
Sensory neurons
Sex pheromone
Substrates
Teeth
Tracking
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Summary:Scorpions have elaborate chemo-tactile organs called pectines on their ventral mesosoma. The teeth of the comb-like pectines support thousands of minute projections called peg sensilla (a.k.a. “pegs”), each containing approximately 10 chemosensory neurons. Males use pectines to detect pheromones released by females, and both sexes apparently use pectines to find prey and navigate to home retreats. Electrophysiological recordings from pegs of Paruroctonus utahensis reveal three spontaneously active cells (A1, A2, and B), which appear to interact synaptically. We made long-term extracellular recordings from the bases of peg sensilla and used a combination of conditional cross-interval and conditional interspike-interval analyses to assess the temporal dynamics of the A and B spike trains. Like previous studies, we found that A cells are inhibited by B cells for tens of milliseconds. However, after normalizing our records, we also found clear evidence that the A cells excite the B cells. This simple local circuit appears to maintain the A cells in a dynamic firing range and may have important implications for tracking pheromonal trails and sensing substrate chemistry for navigation.
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These authors contributed equally to this work.
ISSN:2075-4450
2075-4450
DOI:10.3390/insects12100904