Muscle and Nerve Terminal Fine Structure of a Primitive Crustacean, the Cephalocarid Hutchinsoniella macracantha.

Abstract

Abdominal muscles of the cephalocarid Hutchinsoniella macracantha resemble the striated muscle fibers of other crustaceans, having regularly aligned sarcomeres that average 5 μm in length; thick, wavy Z-lines; and orbits of eight thin filaments surrounding a thick filament. However, unlike most crustacean muscle fibers, the cephalocarid muscle fibers are not subdivided into myofibrils by elaboration of the longitudinally oriented sarcoplasmic reticulum. Consequently, elements of the transverse tubule and sarcoplasmic reticulum in the form of triads occur scattered over the entire fiber. Motor innervation is by means of scattered nerve terminals, populated with round synaptic vesicles, indicative of excitatory axons. By lacking myofibrils, the cephalocarid and ostracod muscle represents a much simpler condition than the myofibril-rich muscles of the other crustacean classes and signifies a primitive condition in its resemblance to the onycophoran muscle.