Localization of a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor-like antigen in the thoracic nervous system of embryonic locusts, Schistocerca gregaria.

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Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and subsequent immunoblotting of neuronal membrane proteins derived from thoracic ganglia of adult Locusta and Schistocerca reveal that a polyclonal antiserum raised against the Locusta nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR), binds strongly to an identical polypeptide band corresponding to 65 kDa in both locust species. This polyclonal antiserum was used to analyze the distribution of antigenic sites within the developing thoracic central nervous system of Schistocerca embryos. Axonal outgrowths from the earliest differentiated neurons are first labeled between 30% and 35% development. By 40% to 45% development, labeled granules appear in the cytoplasm of neuronal cell bodies. When the developing neuropil is first enclosed at approximately 45% to 50% development, it appears uniformly labeled, but by 55% development, unlabeled areas appear that represent the sites of future tracts and commissures. By 75%, an adult pattern of neuropil immunogenicity is established in which synaptic regions are stained but tracts and commissures are not. This suggests that during the early development of the thoracic nervous system nAChR-like antigenic sites are evenly distributed, but later become concentrated in the developing synaptic areas.