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Multifunctional features of a gastrodermal sensory cell inHydra: three-dimensional study

  • Published:
Journal of Neurocytology

Summary

Computer-assisted, three-dimensional reconstructions of two gastrodermal sensory cells from transmission electron micrographs of serial sections ofHydra revealed a unipolar morphology with the nucleus near an apical cilium and a simple unbranched axon with a widened terminal. The sensory cells were similar in size and shape to a unipolar sensory cell isolated from macerated gastrodermis and examined with scanning electron microscopy. In thin sections, the cells were characterized by the presence of numerous dense-cored vesicles in the axon and its terminal. A few dense-cored vesicles were aligned at electron-dense synaptic foci in the axon terminal of the sensory cell, which formed an axo-axonal synapse with a nearby centrally located ganglion cell and a neuromuscular synapse with the basal myoneme of a digestive cell. The ganglion cell possessed a perikaryal cilium and a slender axon that extended adjacent to the sensory cell terminal, where it formed anen passant axo-axonal synapse in reciprocal arrangement with that of the sensory cell. In addition, the ganglion cell axon formed a neuromuscular synapse in sequence with the sensory cell axo-axonal synapse. The presence of a large number of neurosecretory-like granules, apical cilium and reciprocal interneuronal and neuromuscular synaptic loci suggests that this gastrodermal sensory cell, characterized ultrastructurally for the first time, represents a third type of multifunctional neuron inHydra. Thus,Hydra may contain primitive stem-like neurons, which are sensory-motor and also function in both neurosecretion and neurotransmission.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Veterinary Medical Science, Kansas State University, 66506, Manhattan, Kansas, USA

    J. A. Westfall, J. D. Wilson & R. A. Rogers

  2. Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, 80309, Boulder, Colorado, USA

    J. C. Kinnamon

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  1. J. A. Westfall
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  2. J. D. Wilson
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  3. R. A. Rogers
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  4. J. C. Kinnamon
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Westfall, J.A., Wilson, J.D., Rogers, R.A. et al. Multifunctional features of a gastrodermal sensory cell inHydra: three-dimensional study. J Neurocytol 20, 251–261 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01235543

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01235543

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