Distribution of locustamyotropin-like immunoreactivity in the nervous system of Locusta migratoria

Abstract

Locustamyotropin-like immunoreactivity was visualized in the nervous system of Locusta migratoria by means of the peroxidase antiperoxidase method. Highly specific antibodies to the carboxy-terminus of the locustamyotropins were obtained by elution through an affinity column to which Lom-MT II was covalently bound. Specific cells in the nervous system of Locusta migratoria contain substances immunoreactive to anti-locustamyotropin. In total, about 100 cells immunoreactive to the Lom-MT-II antiserum were detected in the head ganglia, in the abdominal neuromeres of the metathoracic ganglion, and in the five free abdominal ganglia. In the brain, immunoreactive cell groups were situated in the inner and outer edge of the tritocerebrum. Prominent axon bundles tightly surround the tractus I to the corpora cardiaca. The corpora allata were innervated by the nervus corporis allati I coming from the corpora cardiaca and by fibers in the nervus corporis allati II originating from cell bodies in the suboesophageal ganglion. Immunoreactive cell bodies in the suboesophageal and abdominal ganglia are distributed along the anterior posterior midline axis, both dorsally and ventrally. The processes of the cell bodies in the abdominal ganglia leave the ganglia and were traced in the respective median nerves into the neurohaemal organs. Since the Lom-MT-II antiserum cross-reacts with all peptides of the locustamyotropin family that have a carboxy-terminus in common, these cells may contain one or several locustamyotropins. The Lom-MT antiserum also recognizes pheromone biosynthesis activating neurohormone, as was revealed by the intensive labeling of suboesophageal cell bodies in Bombyx mori.