The chemical sense of marine isopod crustaceans

我们目前对甲壳类嗅觉途径的形态学和化学引导行为的了解都严重偏向于十足目动物。在目前的项目中，我们希望通过分析外围和中央嗅觉通路的结构以及进行行为论文，对另一种主要的甲壳类动物——海洋等足类动物的嗅觉有更多的了解。为此，我们在此建议，在广泛的等足类动物中，使用神经解剖学方法，如扫描电子显微镜、连续半薄切片结合三维重建、神经元示踪剂的触角回填、dextrans标记嗅觉中间神经元群体的局部应用、免疫荧光结合共聚焦激光扫描显微镜等，来分析触角和中枢嗅觉通路的形态。我们将尝试分析来自不同栖息地的代表，包括深海、北极和南极洲、热带，以及来自不同生活方式的代表，包括食腐动物和寄生物种。此外，嗅觉引导的行为和对气味源的导航策略将在行为分析中进行测试，使用波罗的海常见的杂食性等足类动物Saduria entomon作为模型。在神经系统发育的方法中，我们的数据将与其他malacostracan甲壳类动物和六足动物的嗅觉系统形态进行比较，以便提取数据以了解一般节肢动物嗅觉系统的进化。

Our current knowledge on both the morphology of the crustacean olfactory pathway and on chemically guided behavior is heavily biased towards members of the Decapoda. In the current project, we want to gain more insights into olfaction in another major group of malacostracan crustaceans, the marine Isopoda by analysing the architecture of the peripheral and central olfactory pathway and by conducting behavioral essays. To that end we propose here to analyze, in a wide range of isopods, the morphology of the antennae and the central olfactory pathway with neuroanatomical methods such as scanning electron microscopy, serial semithin sectioning combined with 3D reconstruction, antennal backfilling with neuronal tracers, focal application of dextrans to label populations of olfactory interneurons, and immuno-fluorescence combined with confocal laser-scan microscopy. We will try to analyse representatives from a wide range of different habitats including the deep sea, the Arctic and Antartica, the Tropics, and from different life styles including scavengers and parasitic species. Furthermore, olfactory-guided beha-vior and navigation strategies to odor sources will be tested in behavioral assays using the omnivorous isopod Saduria entomon which is common in the Baltic as a model. In a neurophylogenetic approach, our data will be compared to the morphology of the olfactory systems in other malacostracan crustaceans and hexapods in order to extract data for understanding the evolution of arthropod olfactory systems in general.