Use of the fluorescent retrograde tracer, Granular blue, in crustacean motor system studies

Retrograde axonal transport and fluorescent retrograde labelling of neurons were investigated in a crustacean motor system. A fluorescent tracer (Granular blue) was injected into an antennal muscle of rock lobster in order to identify the motor neurons innervating it. After an appropriate post-injection survival time, the fluorescent tracer was found to have labelled motor neurons in the central ganglion. This result indicates that after uptake by the axon terminals, the fluorescent tracer was retrogradely transported through axons of motor neurons to the parent cell bodies.