Nontopographic projection of olfactory sensory neurons in the crayfish brain

We have used tritiated leucine to trace the input projection pattern of olfactory sensory neurons in crayfishes. The olfactory neurons are associated with cuticular sensilla on the external antennular filaments. Each sensillum, or aesthetasc, harbors the distal dendritic segments of about 175 bipolar sensory neurons, the cell bodies for which are grouped in a subcuticular ensemble or ganglion. About 150-175 individual ganglia may be found on each antennule in an adult crayfish. When an aesthetasc is exposed to tritated leucine, the tracer is taken up by the associated olfactory sensory neurons and is transported along the axons to their central terminations within the glomeruli of the ipsilateral olfactory lobe. We tested the possibility that the sensory neurons from specific aesthetascs project to specific glomeruli. By restricting access of the leucine to small groups of aesthetascs, we exposed less than 2% of the olfactory sensory neurons to the tracer. Nonetheless, all glomeruli were labeled following such treatment. We conclude that the sensory neurons are generally distributed to the olfactory glomeruli. If each neuron terminates in a single glomerulus, these data support a divergent pattern of sensory projection from individual ganglia to all regions of the olfactory lobe.