Efferent neurotransmission of circadian rhythms in Limulus lateral eye. I. Octopamine-induced increases in retinal sensitivity.

Octopamine increases the sensitivity of the Limulus lateral eye in situ when injected beneath the cornea during the day. The effect of octopamine is dose-dependent with a threshold concentration of about 0.1 microM injected at 1 microliter/min for 15 min. Injection of 40 microM octopamine increases lateral eye sensitivity to approximately 70% of the nighttime level normally caused by the efferent output of a circadian clock. Injections of octopamine analogues and other candidate neurotransmitters indicate that the postsynaptic receptor mediating the increase of retinal sensitivity is relatively specific for the structure of octopamine. The postsynaptic receptor is tentatively classified as a type 2B octopamine receptor (Evans, P. D. (1981) J. Physiol. (Lond.) 318: 99-122). Clozapine suppresses the effects of both exogenous octopamine and the endogenous efferent neurotransmitter. Together with the results from Barlow et al. (Barlow, R. B., Jr., S. J. Bolanowski, Jr., and M. L. Brachman (1977) Science 197: 86-89) and Battelle et al. (Batelle, B. -A., J. A. Evans, and S. C. Chamberlain (1982) Science 216: 1250-1252) our study leads to the following conclusion: retinal efferents, driven by a circadian clock in Limulus brain, release octopamine that increases visual sensitivity.