Synaptic transmission in decentralized axons of rock lobster

Axons of the lobster deep abdominal extensor muscles were cut, and the resulting effects on their synaptic properties were observed. Decentralized axons continued to conduct action potentials and to release transmitter for at least a year after the cut. In controls, the single quanta were brief, and their decay phase could be fit by a single exponent, with a time constant of about 2 msec. Quanta of "cut axons" were slower, and their decay phase could not be fit by a single exponent. At midamplitude, the duration of the cut-axon quanta varied between 1.6 and 5.8 msec, as opposed to 0.6-2.8 msec in controls. Synaptic delay histograms were taken as a measure of time course of evoked release. In controls, evoked release lasted less than 10 msec at 14 degrees C. In cut axons, release lasted up to 10 times longer. The duration of release was not affected by tetrodotoxin, membrane depolarization, or hyperpolarization. It appears that the basic mechanism that controls the time course of evoked release is altered in degenerating terminals.