Spatial distribution of excitatory innervation on a muscle fiber of the lobster (Homarus americanus).

Abstract

The distribution of nerve terminals from a single excitatory motor axon has been followed along a fiber from the proximal accessory flexor muscle of the lobster by thin serial sectioning at periodic intervals. The excitatory motor axon provides small axonal branches (diameter 5--12 micron) of varying lengths that travel along the surface of the muscle fiber. Each of these branches gives rise to discrete synaptic terminals which are not uniformly distributed. Individual terminals vary in length from 10--60 micron and the majority possess neuromuscular synapses. The greatest distance between synapses is slightly over 1 mm which is well within the length constant (2.6 mm) of this muscle fiber. Thus the spatail distribution of synapses is such as to ensure adequate depolarization along the entire length of the muscle fiber.