Jackson Deneka, Madeleine Rumingan, Patrick Rodriguez, McCourry Gortney, Emma Howell, Seif S Aldalil, Bea Richardson, Chris Shelley
{"title":"Spontaneous Electrical Activity of Sea Urchin Lantern Protractor Muscle.","authors":"Jackson Deneka, Madeleine Rumingan, Patrick Rodriguez, McCourry Gortney, Emma Howell, Seif S Aldalil, Bea Richardson, Chris Shelley","doi":"10.1086/734629","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>AbstractThe many different muscles of sea urchins are used to control tube foot and spine movement, feeding, excretion, respiration, and gamete release. Unlike in most other animals, the delineation between skeletal and smooth muscles in sea urchins is not clear cut, with many muscles showing characteristics of both muscle types. To further our understanding of sea urchin muscle function, we sought to characterize the electrical properties of protractor muscles of the Aristotle's lantern. Aristotle's lantern comprises a complex of multiple different muscles, ligaments, and calcite ossicles and is primarily involved in feeding. Within the lantern, antagonistic muscle pairs of protractor and retractor muscles act to raise or withdraw the lantern, respectively. The protractor muscles are unstriated, similar to smooth muscle, but connected to the calcite skeleton, as with skeletal muscles. We isolated single muscle cells from the protractor muscles and measured their membrane potentials and found that they generate spontaneous currents at a frequency that ranged from 25 to 30 Hz, a functional property found in many smooth muscles. Furthermore, these currents occurred in the absence of any extraneous cellular or chemical input. Measurement of the reversal potential of the currents under control and ion-substituted conditions suggests that they may be due to the activity a nonspecific cation channel or the synchronous activity of K<sup>+</sup> and Na<sup>+</sup> channels.</p>","PeriodicalId":55376,"journal":{"name":"Biological Bulletin","volume":"246 2-3","pages":"108-115"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Biological Bulletin","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1086/734629","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/3/19 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
AbstractThe many different muscles of sea urchins are used to control tube foot and spine movement, feeding, excretion, respiration, and gamete release. Unlike in most other animals, the delineation between skeletal and smooth muscles in sea urchins is not clear cut, with many muscles showing characteristics of both muscle types. To further our understanding of sea urchin muscle function, we sought to characterize the electrical properties of protractor muscles of the Aristotle's lantern. Aristotle's lantern comprises a complex of multiple different muscles, ligaments, and calcite ossicles and is primarily involved in feeding. Within the lantern, antagonistic muscle pairs of protractor and retractor muscles act to raise or withdraw the lantern, respectively. The protractor muscles are unstriated, similar to smooth muscle, but connected to the calcite skeleton, as with skeletal muscles. We isolated single muscle cells from the protractor muscles and measured their membrane potentials and found that they generate spontaneous currents at a frequency that ranged from 25 to 30 Hz, a functional property found in many smooth muscles. Furthermore, these currents occurred in the absence of any extraneous cellular or chemical input. Measurement of the reversal potential of the currents under control and ion-substituted conditions suggests that they may be due to the activity a nonspecific cation channel or the synchronous activity of K+ and Na+ channels.
期刊介绍:
The Biological Bulletin disseminates novel scientific results in broadly related fields of biology in keeping with more than 100 years of a tradition of excellence. The Bulletin publishes outstanding original research with an overarching goal of explaining how organisms develop, function, and evolve in their natural environments. To that end, the journal publishes papers in the fields of Neurobiology and Behavior, Physiology and Biomechanics, Ecology and Evolution, Development and Reproduction, Cell Biology, Symbiosis and Systematics. The Bulletin emphasizes basic research on marine model systems but includes articles of an interdisciplinary nature when appropriate.