Mechanism of barotaxis in marine zooplankton.

ABSTRACT: Hydrostatic pressure is a dominant environmental cue for vertically migrating marine organisms but the physiological mechanisms of responding to pressure changes remain unclear. Here, we uncovered the cellular and circuit bases of a barokinetic response in the planktonic larva of the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii. Increased pressure induced a rapid, graded, and adapting upward swimming response due to the faster beating of cilia in the head multiciliary band. By calcium imaging, we found that brain ciliary photoreceptors showed a graded response to pressure changes. The photoreceptors in animals mutant for ciliary opsin-1 had a smaller sensory compartment and mutant larvae showed diminished pressure responses. The ciliary photoreceptors synaptically connect to the head

SUBMITTER: Bezares Calderon LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11412693 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature