Distribution and ultrastructure of synapses on a premotor local nonspiking interneuron of the crayfish.

Many premotor local nonspiking interneurons are involved in the control of the uropod movements of a crayfish. One of these interneurons was impaled intracellularly, characterized physiologically, and then labeled by intracellular horseradish peroxidase (HRP) injection to examine the distribution and ultrastructure of synapses. Depolarization of this interneuron by a current injection excited the closer motoneurons of the uropod and inhibited its opener motoneurons, but hyperpolarization had no effect. Input and output synapses are distributed all over the major branches and the finer neurites except for the main neurite (7-10 micron in diameter), which runs near the dorsal surface of the neuropil. Both types of synapse are located on the same neurite and are often intermingled in close proximity, often less than 1 micron apart. Presynaptic terminals of the interneuron contain round, clear vesicles that are densely packed in fine branches and spines. The number of synaptic vesicles associated with a particular output synapse was estimated to be about 2,000. No dense-cored granules are observed in the labeled neurites. Our results support the proposal that synaptic transmission in this class of interneurons of the crayfish can sometimes be restricted to a very small region of the branches and that, therefore, different regions of the interneuron can function independently.