Odour-based navigation behaviour in Tritonia: sensory systems and strategies
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1
St. Francis Xavier University, Biology, Canada
Many animals navigate using odours and flow. The strategies they use to find and avoid odour sources will depend on the locomotory capabilities of the animal, physical characteristics of the flow, and the odour stimuli. Previous efforts have generated substantial insight into the sensory cues, neural underpinnings, and behaviours of odour-based navigation in faster moving animals (particularly crabs and moths). However, much less is known about slower-moving animals, for which there may be considerably different constraints on how successful navigation can occur. Thus, our overall goal is to build a thorough understanding of odour-based navigation in the nudibranch Tritonia diomedea. This slow-moving slug uses primarily odours and flow to guide its movement with respect to a relatively simple set of navigational cues (one prey species, one predator, and just one sex – they are hermaphrodites). Our recent work has focused on the sensory systems involved. We used behavioural experiments to explore what roles the cephalic sensory organs play in the behaviour. During navigation in odour plumes, the paired rhinophores are extended dorsally up into the flow, while the oral veil is held anteriorly with its sensory tips just above or brushing the substrate (Fig. 1). Surgical manipulations showed that just one of the paired rhinophores was sufficient for normal navigation in both attractive and aversive odour plumes (Fig. 2). This result lends further support to the idea these animals use odour-gated rheotaxis, and moreover that it can be implemented using sensory input from just one sense organ. The implication then is that both flow and odour detection occurs in the rhinophore. This spurred further experiments to test what role (if any) the oral veil plays in odour-based navigation. One possibility could be that the oral veil detects odours trapped in the boundary layer immediately above the substrate. Using further surgical manipulations, we initially tested whether these odours alone could be used for successful navigation, and our results suggest that although Tritonia can detect odours trapped in the boundary layer, it does not use them for navigation. Thus, our working hypothesis is that the oral veil provides at most supplementary input for navigation. Finally, we are exploring the peripheral neuroanatomy of the sense organs, with the ultimate goal of identifying the sensory receptors involved in both flow and odour detection. We have identified numerous putatively catecholaminergic peripheral sensory cells, and we now hope to use further experiments (in Tritonia or other gastropod models) to determine the sensory modality of these cells which are found throughout the molluscs. Overall, these experiments provide a basis for studying odour-based navigation in an established neuroethological model system, with the potential for creating a single-neuron level analysis of navigation behaviours.
Keywords:
animal navigation,
cephalic sensory organs,
Neuroethology,
odor-gated rheotaxis,
odour plumes
Conference:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Poster (but consider for Participant Symposium)
Topic:
Sensory: Olfaction and Taste
Citation:
Wyeth
RC,
Kehoe
EF and
McCullagh
GB
(2012). Odour-based navigation behaviour in Tritonia: sensory systems and strategies.
Conference Abstract:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00401
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Received:
02 May 2012;
Published Online:
07 Jul 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Russell C Wyeth, St. Francis Xavier University, Biology, Antigonish, Canada, rwyeth@stfx.ca