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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 30: Posters - Neurosciences
BP 30.2: Poster
Tuesday, March 21, 2017, 14:00–16:00, P2-OG1
Mechanotransduction in the pentamere chordotonal organ of the Drosophila larva — •Achintya Prahlad1, Christian Spalthoff2, Ben Warren2, Deqing Kong3, Jörg Großhans3, Martin Göpfert2, and Christoph Schmidt1 — 1Third Institute of Physics, Georg August University, Göttingen — 2Schwann-Schleiden Research Centre, Georg August University, Göttingen — 3Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology, University Medical Centre, Göttingen
Chordotonal organs perform mechanosensory functions across diverse insect species. How these organs transduce mechanical stimuli is so far unknown. Our organ of interest is the lch5 organ, which plays a key role in coordinating locomotion in the Drosophila larva. This organ consists of neurons and accessory cells. We applied tension to the whole organ in situ by transverse deflection. Upon release, the organ displays overdamped relaxation with two widely separated time constants, a rapid snap-back followed by a slow relaxation. When the muscles covering the lch5 organ were excised, the slow relaxation was absent and the fast time constant was faster. Most of the strain in the stretched organ is localized in the cap cells, which account for 66% of the length of the entire organ, and could be stretched to increase the length by ~10% without apparent damage. In laser ablation experiments we found that cap cells severed from the neurons retracted over 100 microns indicating considerable stress and strain in these cells. Given that myosins are abundant in the cap cells, the results point to a mechanical regulatory role of the cap cells in the lch5 organ.