Sensory Physiology of Aquatic Lower Vertebrates. Satellite Symposium of the 28th International Congress of Physiological Sciences, Keszthely, Hungary, 1980

283 Pages·1981·8.49 MB·English

by  T. Szabó and G. Czéh (Eds.)

ADVANCES IN PHYSIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Proceedings of the 28th International Congress of Physiological Sciences
Budapest 1980
Volumes
1 - Regulatory Functions of the CNS. Principles of Motion and Organization
2 - Regulatory Functions of the CNS. Subsystems
3 - Physiology of Non-excitable Cells
4 - Physiology of Excitable Membranes
5 - Molecular and Cellular Aspects of Muscle Function
6 - Genetics, Structure and Function of Blood Cells
7 - Cardiovascular Physiology. Microcirculation and Capillary Exchange
8 - Cardiovascular Physiology. Heart, Peripheral Circulation and Methodology
9 - Cardiovascular Physiology. Neural Control Mechanisms
10 - Respiration
11 - Kidney and Body Fluids
12 - Nutrition, Digestion, Metabolism
13 - Endocrinology, Neuroendocrinology, Neuropeptides -1
14 - Endocrinology, Neuroendocrinology, Neuropeptides - II
15 - Reproduction and Development
16 - Sensory Functions
17 - Brain and Behaviour
18 - Environmental Physiology
19 - Gravitational Physiology
20 - Advances in Animal and Comparative Physiology
21 - History of Physiology
Satellite symposia of the 28th International Congress of Physiological Sciences
22 - Neurotransmitters in Invertebrates
23 - Neurobiology of Invertebrates
24 - Mechanism of Muscle Adaptation to Functional Requirements
25 - Oxygen Transport to Tissue
26 - Homeostasis in Injury and Shock
27 - Factors Influencing Adrenergic Mechanisms in the Heart
28 - Saliva and Salivation
29 - Gastrointestinal Defence Mechanisms
30 - Neural Communications and Control
31 - Sensory Physiology of Aquatic Lower Vertebrates
32 - Contributions to Thermal Physiology
33 - Recent Advances of Avian Endocrinology
34 - Mathematical and Computational Methods in Physiology
35 - Hormones, Lipoproteins and Atherosclerosis
36 - Cellular Analogues of Conditioning and Neural Plasticity
(Each volume is available separately.)
ADVANCES IN
PHYSIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Satellite Symposium of the 28th International Congress of Physiological Sciences
Keszthely, Hungary 1980
Volume 31
Sensory Physiology of Aquatic
Lower Vertebrates
Editors
T. Szabo
G. Czéh
Budapest, Hungary
m
PERGAMON PRESS AKADÉMIAI KIADO
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
International Congress of Physiological Sciences
Satellite Symposium (28th : 1980 : Keszthely)
Advances in physiological sciences.
Vol. 31 : Sensory physiology of aquatic lower
vertebrates
1. Physiology - Congresses
I. Title II. Szabo, T. III. Czeh, G.
591.1 QP1 80-42204
Pergamon Press ISBN 0 08 026407 7 (Series)
ISBN 0 08 027352 1 (Volume)
Akadémiai Kiado ISBN 963 05 2691 3 (Series)
ISBN 963 05 2756 1 (Volume)
In order to make this volume available as economically and as
rapidly as possible the authors' typescripts have been reproduced in
their original forms. This method unfortunately has its typographi-
cal limitations but it is hoped that they in no way distract the reader.
Printed in Hungary
FOREWORD
This volume is one of the series published by Akadémiai Kiado, the
Publishing House of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in coédition with
Pergamon Press, containing the proceedings of the symposia of the 28th
International Congress of Physiology held in Budapest between 13 and 19
July, 1980. In view of the diversity of the material and the "taxonomic"
difficulties encountered whenever an attempt is made to put the various
subdisciplines and major themes of modern physiology into the semblance of
some systematic order, the organizers of the Congress had to settle for 14
sections and for 127 symposia, with a considerable number of free communi-
cations presented either orally or as posters.
The Congress could boast of an unusually bright galaxy of top names
among the invited lecturers and participants and, naturally, the ideal would
have been to include all the invited lectures and symposia papers into the vol-
umes. We are most grateful for all the material received and truly regret that
a fraction of the manuscripts were not submitted in time. We were forced
to set rigid deadlines, and top priority was given to speedy publication even
at the price of sacrifices and compromises. It will be for the readers to judge
whether or not such an editorial policy is justifiable, for we strongly believe
that the value of congress proceedings declines proportionally with the gap
between the time of the meeting and the date of publication. For the same
reason, instead of giving exact transcriptions of the discussions, we had to
rely on the introductions of the Symposia Chairmen who knew the material
beforehand and on their concluding remarks summing up the highlights of
the discussions.
Evidently, such publications cannot and should not be compared with
papers that have gone through the ordinary scrupulous editorial process of
the international periodicals with their strict reviewing policy and high
rejection rates or suggestions for major changes. However, it may be refresh-
ing to read these more spontaneous presentations written without having to
watch the "shibboleths" of the scientific establishment.
September 1, 1980 J. Szentâgothai
President of the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
v
FOREWORD
The present book contains the papers delivered and discussed during a
satellite symposium organised in connection with the 28th International
Congress of Physiological Sciences and held in Keszthely, Hungary, 21-22
July 1980.
The original plan was to assemble scientists who work on sensory
systems of lower aquatic vertebrates; however, due to the large number of
meetings organised during the same period in July 1980, we were forced to
restrict the programme to the electrosensory and electromotor systems in
fish. Although electroreception and questions related to it are one of the
most intensively studied areas of the sensory physiology of lower aquatic
vertebrates, from a. comparative viewpoint it would certainly have been
interesting to learn about recent advances made in work on other sensory
modalities, in fish as well as in amphibians.
Nearly forty colleagues presented their most recent findings and two
papers were read in the absence of the authors who were unable to attend
the meeting. This meeting was devoted to new findings and developments in
contrast to the two previous international meetings held in Paris, 1977 (see
"Electroreceptors" Round Table of the 27th International Congress of
Physiological Sciences, Ed. T. Szabo, J. Physiol., Paris, 1979, 75: 311-443)
and in Gif sur Yvette, France (Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol., 1979, 4, 311-408),
where exhaustive reviews were presented on the morphological aspects of the
electrosensory and electromotor system and on the physiological aspects of
both peripheral and central processing of electrosensory impulses. The fol-
lowing papers, which range from anatomy to ethology, reflect the versatility
of this rather young but exciting field of neurobiology.
Our readers may at first feel that these papers are somewhat specialised,
reporting details of phenomena which occur in only a small number of fish
species, as compared to all the other vertebrates which do not have electro-
receptors. However, as T. H. Bullock (1979) has emphasized, the very same
papers can be read as dealing with the sensitivity of living cells to minute
alterations of the electric field in their surroundings. These papers deal with
sensory transduction in general, with problems of coding of changes detected
in the environment, as well as with several aspects of evolutionary phy-
siology of the nervous system. We therefore hope that our efforts in this
IX
rather specialised field may further stimulate research by neurobiologists
working in other areas of sensory physiology.
Finally we would like to thank almost as many different institutions as
the number of participants, for supporting and financing their participation.
It is also a pleasure to thank Dr. E. Grastyan, chairman of the "Sensory
Functions" section of the 28th International Congress of Physiological
Sciences, for his enthusiastic help.
G. Czeh
x
Adv. Physio/. Sei. Vol. 31. Sensory Physiology of Aquatic Lower Vertebrates
T. Szabo, G. Czéh (eds)
ELECTRORECEPTORS IN INDIAN CATFISH
TELEOSTS
C. B. L. Srivastava and M. Seal
Department of Zoology, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India
SUMMARY Four Indian freshwater catfishes, viz. Clarias batrachus, Hete-
ropneustes fossilis, Rita rita and Mystus vittatus, have been investigated
for detailed structure of their ampullary organs. The ontogenetical de-
velopment of these organs was followed in one of these catfishes, namely
H. fossilis, using light microscopy. It was found that the organs of
these catfishes essentially resemble those of freshwater catfishes of
other tropical parts of the world and of tropical freshwater weakly elec-
tric teleosts of S. America and S. Africa. The ecological conditions of
the water and nocturnal habit of the fishes in the case of the Indian spe-
cies parallels those of fishes of other countries. All these facts sug-
gest an electroreception function for the ampullary organs of Indian
spaeies as well. Developmental studies show that in H. fossilis, fully
formed ampullary organs are present in the larval stage, indicating that
these may be functional at this stage of life as well as assisting in the
location of food and the detection of enemies.
In the ontogeny of the ampullary organ, histogenesis shows a primor-
dial stage very similar to that found in the development of ordinary la-
teral line organs. This feature, which we report here for the first time,
is the first developmental evidence in favour of homology between these
two categories of organs. It has also been brought to light that the ca-
nal of the ampullary organ has a developmental origin independent of neu-
romastic origin of the sensory epithelium of the ampulla. A constant ac-
companiment of the ampullary organs of freshwater catfishes seems to be a
compact collagen layer in the dermis.
INTRODUCTION
In India a number of catfishes inhabit tropical waters (muddy bottoms
of ponds and rivers, swamps and paddy fields) in which visibility is poor
owing to increased turbidity. Still other catfishes live in clear water
of rivers, but the nocturnal habit of these catfishes renders eyes use-
less. These fishes, eyes notwithstanding, may, thus, be thought to de-
pend on a sense other than vision for normal perception of the surround-
ings. The electroreception mechanism, known to occur in a number of tro-
pical freshwater teleosts including some catfishes inhabiting conditions
of poor visibility (Lissmann and Machin, 1958), is also a likely candidate
1
for Indian catfishes. Histological demonstration of ampullary organs
(small pit organs) in these fishes would be the first requirement for
such a suggestion. Preliminary reports have indicated the occurrence of
such electroreceptor organs in Indian catfishes (Mittal, 1968; Lahiri and
Kapoor, 1975; Srivastava et al., 1978; Seal and Srivastava, 1978). The
present paper aims at a detailed investigation of the structure of the
ampullary organs in four Indian catfishes: Clarias batrachus, Hetero-
pneustes fossilis, Rita rita and Mystus vittatus, and of the development
of the ampullary organs in one of these, namely H. fossilis. It may be
pointed out that development of ampullary organs is not known, except for
a brief report on Parasilurus (Sato, 1956), owing to the difficulty in
procuring the developmental stages of electric and nonelectric electro-
receptive teleosts.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The catfishes were procured from local markets or collected from fish-
ing sites on rivers. Pieces of skin from head and trunk, especially from
the dorsal surface, were excised and fixed in Bouin's fluid by immersion.
Material was then processed for paraffin microtomy and 6 to 8 /am thick
sections were cut. Staining was done with Haematoxylene-eosin. Develop-
mental stages of H. fossilis consisted of spawn from induced breeding*,
which was raised in the laboratory. Entire larvae were processed as above
and serially sectioned. Ampullary organs were first located in an advan-
ced stage and then these were traced back through intermediate developmen-
tal stages to their earliest recognisable stage.
OBSERVATIONS
I Structure of the ampullary organs
a) Clarias batrachus (Linn.) (Figs. 1 and 2)
Each ampullary organ has a fairly long, narrow intraepidermal canal,
c. 100 urn in length, leading to a single ampulla or to two or three ampul-
lae, each of which rests on the basement membrane. The ampulla is lined
with a sensory epithelium. The canal wall is composed of very compactly
packed two to three layers of flat cells. These cells which line the ca-
nal lumen up to where it opens on the surface are continuous with the sur-
face layer of the epidermis. The cells are well demarcated from ordinary
cells of the middle layer and surface layer of the epidermis in size,
shape and orientation. Some gland cells occur in the canal wall especially
at the junction between the canal and the ampulla. The sensory epitheli-
um shows two distinct categories of cells: the smaller but more prominent
♦Induced bred spawn was made available to us by C.I.F.R.I. Unit at Mitha-
pur Fish Farm, Patna, which is thankfully acknowledged.
2
sensory cells, and the larger and more numerous supporting cells. The sen-
sory cells are exposed to the lumen of the ampulla by an appreciabl eapi-
cal surface. No hair-like process is present on the apical surface. No
cupula is seen in the lumen.
The skin has a moderately thick epidermis, c. 150/am in thickness.
The dermis shows a thick layer of densely set collagen bundles just be-
neath the basement membrane.
Fig. 1. Transverse section of skin of C. batrachus showing an ampullary
organ in vertical section; inset shows a magnified view of the ampullary
organ. Note the canal wall, the sensory cells and the thick ,collagen
layer in the dermis. X 30.
Fig. 2. Tangential section of the epidermis of C. batrachus showing the
canal in transverse section. Note the canal wall and the lumen. X 300.
b) Heteropneustes fossilis (Bloch) (Figs 3-5)
The structure of the ampullary organ is similar to that described for
C. batrachus. The canal wall is very distinct and clearly distinguishable
from the adjacent epidermal cells. The canal wall is continuous with the
surface layer of the epidermis at the opening of the ampullary organ. The
canal length measures c. 80jum. The skin is provided with a very thick
layer of compact collagen bundles, lying next to the basement membrane.
The epidermis measures c. 120Aim in thickness.
Fig. 3. An ampullary organ of H. fossilis in vertical section. Note the
canal wall. X 260.
3
Fig. 4. Tangential section of the epidermis of H. fossilis showing the
canal in transverse section. Note the canal wall and the lumen. X 550.
Fig. 5. Transverse section of the skin of H. fossilis. Note the thick
collagen layer in dermis. X 220.
c) Rita rita (Ham.) (Figs. 6-8)
The skin has a very thick epidermis measuring c. 400/un in thickness.
The canal of the ampullary organ, however, is not more than c. 40 urn in
length. A dermal papilla supports the ampullary organ high up in th eepi-
dermis, compensating the shortness of canal length relative to thickness
of epidermis. The canal wall is very prominent. Dermis has a very con-
spicuous and exceptionally thick layer of compact collagen bundles just
below the basement membrane.
Fig. 6. An ampullary organ of R. rita in vertical section. Nöte the ca-
nal wall. X 400.
Fig. 7. Tangential section of the epidermis of R. rita showing the canal
in transverse section. Note the canal wall and the lumen. X 400.
Fig. 8. Transverse section of the skin of R. rita. Note the very thick
collagen layer in dermis. X 70.-
4