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SUMMARYThe crinoid echinoderm Antedon mediterranea autotomises its arms at specialised skeletal joints known as syzygies that occur at regular intervals along the length of each arm. Detachment is achieved through the nervously mediated destabilisation of ligament fibres at a particular syzygy. The aim of this investigation was to identify neurotransmitters that are involved in the autotomy response. Physiological experiments were conducted on isolated preparations of syzygial joints, which can be induced to undergo autotomy-like fracture by applying stimulatory agents such as elevated [K+]o. Initial experiments with elevated [K+]o showed that the autotomy threshold (the minimum amount of stimulation required to provoke autotomy) is lowest in syzygies at the arm base and rises distally. Of a range of neurotransmitter agonists tested, only l-glutamate invoked syzygial destabilisation, as did its analogues l-aspartate, α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate (AMPA) and kainate, but not l-(+)-2-amino-4-phosphonobutyrate (l-AP4) or N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA). The implication that l-glutamate stimulates syzygial fracture through AMPA/kainate-like receptors was supported by the finding that the action of l-glutamate was inhibited by the AMPA/kainate receptor antagonist 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX). Acetylcholine depressed the response of syzygial preparations to l-glutamate, suggesting a possible mechanism by which the autotomy threshold could be varied constitutively and facultatively. An immunocytochemical method employing a polyclonal antibody against l-glutamate conjugated to glutaraldehyde revealed l-glutamate-like immunoreactivity in all components of the putative neural pathway controlling the autotomy reflex, including the epidermis, brachial nerve, syzygial nerves and cellular elements close to the syzygial ligaments. We conclude that it is highly probable that l-glutamate acts as an excitatory neurotransmitter in the activation of arm autotomy in A. mediterranea.

SUMMARY The marine sponge Chondrosia reniformis Nardo consists largely of a collagenous tissue, the mesohyl, which confers a cartilaginous consistency on the whole animal. This investigation was prompted by the incidental observation that, despite a paucity of potentially contractile elements in the mesohyl, intact C. reniformis stiffen noticeably when touched. By measuring the deflection under gravity of beam-shaped tissue samples, it was demonstrated that the flexural stiffness of the mesohyl is altered by treatments that influence cellular activities, including [Ca2+]manipulation, inorganic and organic calcium channel-blockers and cell membrane disrupters, and that it is also sensitive to extracts of C. reniformis tissue that have been repeatedly frozen then thawed. Since the membrane disrupters and tissue extracts cause marked stiffening of mesohyl samples, it is hypothesised that cells in the mesohyl store a stiffening factor and that the physiologically controlled release of this factor is responsible for the touch-induced stiffening of intact animals.