Short- and long-wavelength-sensitive opsins are involved in photoreception both in the retina and throughout the central nervous system of crayfish.

Crayfish have two classes of photoreceptors in the retinas of their reflecting superposition eyes. Long-wavelength-sensitive photoreceptors, comprised of microvilli from R1-7 cells, make up the main rhabdoms. Eighth retinular cells, located distal to the main rhabdoms, house short-wavelength-sensitive photoreceptors. While the opsin involved in long-wavelength sensitivity has long been known, we present the first description of the short-wavelength-sensitive opsin in the retina of the red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii. The expression patterns of these SWS and LWS opsin proteins in the retina are consistent with the previously described locations of SWS and LWS receptors. Crayfish also have a well-characterized extraocular photoreceptor, called the caudal photoreceptor, located in the sixth abdominal ganglion. To search for retinal opsins in the caudal photoreceptor (and elsewhere in the CNS), we used RT-PCR and immunohistochemical labeling. We found both SWS and LWS opsin transcripts not only in the sixth abdominal ganglion, but also in all ganglia of the nerve cord. Immunolabeling shows that both opsins are expressed in nerve fibers that extend from the brain through the entire length of the CNS. Thus, the same two photopigments are used both for vision in the retina and for extraocular functions throughout the CNS of crayfish.

Transcriptional identification of genes light-interacting in the extraretinal photoreceptors of the crayfish Procambarusclarkii.

Crayfish serve as a model for studying the effect of environmental lighting on locomotor activity and neuroendocrine functions. The effects of light on this organism are mediated differentially by retinal and extraretinal photoreceptors located in the cerebroid ganglion and the pleonal nerve cord. However, some molecular aspects of the phototransduction cascade in the pleonal extraretinal photoreceptors remain unknown. In this study, transcriptome data from the pleonal nerve cord of the crayfish Procambarusclarkii (Girard,1852) were analyzed to identify transcripts that potentially interact with phototransduction process. The Illumina MiSeq System and the pipeline Phylogenetically Informed Annotation (PIA) were employed, which places uncharacterized genes into pre-calculated phylogenies of gene families. Here, for the first time 62 transcripts identified from the pleonal nerve cord that are related to light-interacting pathways are reported; they can be classified into the following 11 sets: 1) retinoid pathway in vertebrates and invertebrates, 2) photoreceptor specification, 3) rhabdomeric phototransduction, 4) opsins 5) ciliary phototransduction, 6) melanin synthesis, 7) pterin synthesis, 8) ommochrome synthesis, 9) heme synthesis, 10) diurnal clock, and 11) crystallins. Moreover, this analysis comparing the sequences located on the pleonal nerve cord to eyestalk sequences reported in other studies reveals 94-100% similarity between the 55 common proteins identified. These results show that both retinal and pleonal non-visual photoreceptors in the crayfish equally expressed the transcripts involved in light detection. Moreover, they suggest that the genes related to ocular and extraocular light perception in the crayfish P.clarkii use biosynthesis pathways and phototransduction cascades commons.

DataView: A Tutorial Tool for Data Analysis. Template-based Spike Sorting and Frequency Analysis.

DataView is a Windows program for viewing and analyzing digital data derived from analog signals using A/D acquisition systems. It is primarily designed for research neuroscientists, but its low (or zero) cost makes it a suitable tool for giving students hands-on experience of analysis techniques. It is supplied with many examples of pre-recorded data and also has facilities to allow tutors to use their own - or indeed their students' - experimental results as the dataset for analysis. This article illustrates the use of DataView with a brief tutorial on template-based spike sorting and frequency analysis. The DataView manual contains detailed instructions and sample datasets for a wide range of other analytical and data-manipulation techniques.