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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 92/4/2003    most recent 00454.2004v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (7) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Luna, V. M. Articles by Brehm, P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Luna, V. M. Articles by Brehm, P.

Persistent Electrical Coupling and Locomotory Dysfunction in the Zebrafish Mutant shocked

¹Department of Neurobiology and Behavior and ²Howard Hughes Medical Institute, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794

Submitted 3 May 2004; accepted in final form 8 June 2004

On initial formation of neuromuscular junctions, slow synaptic signals interact through an electrically coupled network of muscle cells. After the developmental onset of muscle excitability and the transition to fast synaptic responses, electrical coupling diminishes. No studies have revealed the functional importance of the electrical coupling or its precisely timed loss during development. In the mutant zebrafish shocked (sho) electrical coupling between fast muscle cells persists beyond the time that it would normally disappear in wild-type fish. Recordings from sho indicate that muscle depolarization in response to motor neuron stimulation remains slow due to the low-pass filter characteristics of the coupled network of muscle cells. Our findings suggest that the resultant prolonged muscle depolarizations contribute to the premature termination of swimming in sho and the delayed acquisition of the normally rapid touch-triggered movements. Thus the benefits of gap junctions during early synapse development likely become a liability if not inactivated by the time that muscle would normally achieve fast autonomous function.

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