Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T18:12:16.821Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The structure of stretch receptor endings in the fin muscles of rays

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Q. Bone
Affiliation:
The Laboratory, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth
A. D. Chubb
Affiliation:
The Laboratory, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth

Extract

The muscles of the paired fins of rays have long been known to possess large sensory endings of a special type, first described in Torpedo by Poloumordwinoff (1898) and Cavalie (1902), and subsequently re-examined by Barets (1956). They consist of many parallel beaded nerve fibres, derived from a large myelinated parent axon, lying between the muscle fibres of the fins. That they respond to stretch (as was inferred from their structure and position) was shown by Fessard & Sand (1937). Since these are the only sensory endings known in any fish which are stretch receptors lying amongst muscle fibres (neuromuscular spindles are absent from fishes), more information about their structure and relationships with the muscle fibres of the fins is desirable. In this note, we describe the ultra-structure of this simple type of stretch receptor, and the type of muscle fibre with which it is associated.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barets, A., 1956. Les recepteurs intra-musculaires des nageoires chez les selaciens. Archives d'anatomie microscopique et de morphologie experimentale, 45, 254–60.Google Scholar
Bone, Q., 1966. On the function of the two types of myotomal muscle fibres in elasmobranch fish. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 46, 321–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bone, Q., Ridge, R. M. P. A. & Ryan, K. P., 1975. Sensory endings in the limb muscles of urodeles. (In preparation.)Google Scholar
Cavalié, M., 1902. Sur les terminaisons nerveuses motrices et sensitives dans les muscles striés, chez la Torpille (Torpedo marmorata). Compte rendu des seances de la Societe de biologie, 54, 1279–80.Google Scholar
Fessard, A. & Sand, A., 1937. Stretch receptors in the muscles of fishes. Journal of Experimental Biology, 14, 383404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poloumordwinoff, D., 1898. Recherches sur les terminaisons nerveuses sensitives dans les muscles stries volontaires. Travaux des Laboratoires de la Societe Scientifique et Station Zoologique d'Arcachon, No. 3, 73–9.Google Scholar
Winkelmann, R. K. & Schmitt, R. W., 1957. A simple silver method for nerve axoplasm. Proceedings. Mayo Clinic, 32, 217–22.Google ScholarPubMed