We study the nervous system, specifically communication between neurons and muscles at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), in the Jonah crab (Cancer borealis). We asked whether p7, a pyloric (food filtering behavior) muscle, and gm3, a gastric mill (chewing behavior) muscle, can follow the dual-network activity pattern of the LPG neuron which innervates them. LPG switches from pyloric-only activity to pyloric and gastric mill activity in response to the neuropeptide Gly1-SIFamide (Fahoum and Blitz, 2021). Our research question is relevant for the field because it provides information about how muscles adapt to changes in neuronal activity. Our work was conducted using electrophysiological techniques to stimulate the LPG axons with three naturalistic patterns and record muscle electrical responses. We found that p7 follows dual-network activity of LPG, but gm3’s ability to follow the dual-activity is pattern specific. We saw evidence of facilitation in p7 during naturalistic dual-activity patterns, so we used paired-pulse, gastric train, and pyloric train protocols to confirm this finding. However, p7’s synaptic plasticity is more complicated when the muscle responds to high-frequency stimulation as in the dual-activity patterns. gm3 also exhibits synaptic plasticity, but we were not able to characterize this because the muscle does not respond to single pulses as p7 does. Future research can be done to determine how these changes in muscle electrical activity translate to behavior, and whether adaptations contribute to coordination of behaviors. This work is relevant to our intended careers in medicine because we have learned about the physiology of changes at the NMJ, which can be caused by neurodegenerative diseases.
Author(s):Amanda R. Pinter, Alyssa A. Sheridan, Barathan Gnanabharathi, Larissa A. Ziegler, Savanna-Rae H. Fahoum, Dawn M. Blitz, PhD
Advisor(s): Barathan Gnanabharathi, Dawn M. Blitz, Biology
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