Data from: Serial-section atlas of the Tritonia pedal ganglion
Data files
Jun 06, 2019 version files 1.81 GB
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Ped Horiz High res cropped.zip
709.56 MB
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Ped Vert High res cropped.zip
884.63 MB
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Pedal_2um_horizontal.ppt
131.63 MB
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Pedal_5um_vertical.ppt
79.36 MB
Abstract
The pedal ganglion of the nudibranch gastropod Tritonia diomedea has been the focus of neurophysiological studies for more than 50 years. These investigations have examined the neural basis of behaviors as diverse as swimming, crawling, reflex withdrawals, orientation to water flow, orientation to the earth’s magnetic field, and learning. In spite of this sustained research focus, most studies have confined themselves to the layer of neurons that are visible on the ganglion’s surface, leaving many neurons, which reside in deeper layers, largely unknown and thus unstudied. To facilitate work on such neurons, the present study used serial section light microscopy to generate a detailed pictorial atlas of the pedal ganglion. One pedal ganglion was sectioned horizontally at 2 µm, and another vertically at 5 µm intervals. The resulting images were examined separately or combined into stacks to generate movie tours through the ganglion. These were also used to generate 3D reconstructions of individual neurons, and rotating movies of digitally desheathed whole ganglia to reveal all surface neurons. A complete neuron count of the horizontally sectioned ganglion yielded 1885 neurons. Real and virtual sections from the image stacks were used to reveal the morphology of individual neurons, as well as the major axon bundles traveling within the ganglion to and between its several nerves and connectives. Extensive supplemental data are provided, as well as a link to the Dryad Data Repository site where the complete sets of high resolution serial section images can be downloaded.