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American Zoologist 1999 39(3):527-540; doi:10.1093/icb/39.3.527
© 1999 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
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Muscle Restructuring in Crustaceans: Myofiber Death, Transfiguration and Rebirth1

DEFOREST MELLON, JR2
Department of Biology, Gilmer Hall, University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia 22903

Correspondence: 2E-mail: dm6d{at}virginia.edu

Research on the dimorphic claws of the snapping shrimp Alpheus has revealed moult-associated changes in structure and biochemical composition—including atrophy and biochemical modification—of claw muscle fibers during morphological transformation of a claw from a pincer to a snapper. Electrophysiology, SDS-PAGE gel electrophoresis, and immunocytochemistry were used to analyze changes in claw closer muscle function and composition during the transformation process. Remodification of closer muscle during claw transformation, involving the complete loss of a central section of fast-contracting fibers and their replacement through enlargement of existing slowly-contracting segments of the muscle, may mimic similar muscle modifications during initial claw development. Exposure of intact animals to environmental ecdysteroid hormones accelerated the rate of these changes. These processes appear to be a product of a remarkable trophic plasticity of crustacean skeletal muscle first discovered by Skinner.


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