• P V Zelenin and Y V Panchin.
• A.N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
• Eur. J. Neurosci. 1999 May 1; 11 (5): 1800-8.

AbstractIn the pteropod mollusc Clione limacina, two different groups of motoneurons innervate two physiologically identical wing muscles (dorsal and ventral). When motoneuron axons are crushed in the nerve of whole animals regeneration starts. In its course motoneurons initially project to both the correct and incorrect muscles. Then incorrect connections and neurites are eliminated and the original innervation is restored. Here we investigated neuromuscular regeneration when one of the muscles was removed or the muscle size was reduced. Motoneurons formed both correct and incorrect connections not only in vitro when the pedal ganglion was attached to only one of two wing muscles, but also in whole-animal 'no choice' experiments when only one muscle was available for reinnervation. In these experiments incorrect connections were stable and were not eliminated at the later stages, as happened in experiments in which both muscles were accessible. In whole-animal experiments with reduced size of the muscles, a normal pattern of regeneration was conserved although not all incorrect connections were eliminated. Thus, in the course of regeneration: (i) locomotor motoneurons make connections with both correct and incorrect muscles; (ii) if for some group of motoneurons the correct targets are unavailable, the incorrect connections survive and become stable; (iii) if both groups of motoneurons have a choice between the correct and incorrect targets, initial mixed innervation is replaced by purely correct innervation; (iv) elimination of incorrect synapses could be a result of the competition between correct and incorrect synapses of the same neuron.

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