The effects of eliminating impulse activity on the development of the retinotectal projection in salamanders.

The California newt Taricha torosa manufactures tetrodotoxin, a blocker of voltage-sensitive sodium channels and therefore of action potentials.The newt's own nervous system is insensitive to this toxin. Grafting an embryonic eye to the newt from a tetrodotoxin-sensitive species, the Mexican axolotl, blocks action potentials in the retinal ganglion cells of the transplanted eye. Neuroanatomical and electrophysical techniques demonstrate that while such ganglion cells are incapable of firing impulses, they develop normally, grow axons to the host tectum, terminate in the appropriate neuropil layers, form synapses, and project to the tectum retinotopically. Furthermore, they develop these apparently normal projections even in competition with electrically active axons from a host eye.