Ultrastructural morphology of neurosecretory neurons in the barnacle Balanus amphitrite

Abstract

Barnacles are very specialized Crustacea, with strongly reduced head and abdomen. Their nervous system is rather simple: the brain or supra-oesophageal ganglion (SG) is a small bilobed structure and the toracic ganglia are fused into a single ventral mass, the suboesophageal ganglion (VG). Neurosecretion was shown in barnacle nervous system by histochemical methods and numerous putative hormonal substances were extracted and tested. Recently six different types of dense-core granules were visualized in the median ocellar nerve of Balanus hameri and serotonin and FMRF-amide like substances were immunocytochemically detected in the nervous system of Balanus amphitrite. The aim of the present work is to localize and characterize at ultrastructural level, neurosecretory neuron cell bodies in the VG of Balanus amphitrite.Specimens of Balanus amphitrite were collected in the port of Genova. The central nervous system were Karnovsky fixed, osmium postfixed, ethanol dehydrated and Durcupan ACM embedded. Ultrathin sections were stained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate. Ultrastructural observations were made on a Philips M 202 and Zeiss 109 T electron microscopy.