Serotoninergic varicosities make synaptic contacts with pleural sensory neurons of Aplysia

Serotonin is a modulatory neurotransmitter that produces many of the cellular changes associated with sensitization of reflexes in Aplysia. These changes have been carefully documented in sensory neurons located in the abdominal ganglion that mediate the gill-siphon withdrawal reflex and in sensory neurons located in the pleural ganglion that mediate the tail-siphon withdrawal reflex. Although serotonin appears to be necessary for sensitization, there is no direct evidence that serotoninergic neurons make synaptic contacts with sensory neurons. In this study, the immunoperoxidase technique was used to label serotonin-immunoreactive neurites surrounding the cell bodies of sensory neurons in the pleural ganglion. Serotonin-immunoreactive neurites had varicosities whose mean short axis diameter was 1.1 +/- 0.6 microns (mean +/- S.D.). The shape of the size distribution was skewed toward larger sizes, however, suggesting that there were multiple subpopulations of varicosities. One subpopulation was that of varicosities located at branch points whose average short axis diameter was larger than normal (1.7 +/- 0.5 microns). Serotonin-immunoreactive varicosities were directly apposed to the sensory neurons without intervening glial cells. In most contacts, serotonin-immunoreactive neurites invaginated into the plasma membranes of the sensory neurons. There were also a few contacts onto spinelike processes, but these were flat rather than invaginated. Serotoninergic neurons whose activity produces changes in the electrophysiological properties of sensory neurons have been identified, but this study provides the first direct evidence for synaptic connections between serotoninergic neurons and sensory neurons in Aplysia.