Remodeling of nerves during claw reversal in adult snapping shrimps

Adult snapping shrimps, Alpheus heterochelis, undergo a reversal of their claw laterality following removal of the major claw, a process in which the existing minor claw transforms into a major and a new minor regenerates at the old major site. During such reversals the nerves to the ganglion are remodeled from one claw type to the other. Conversion of the nerves from the minor to the major type occurs within several days after removal of the contralateral major claw and involves the rapid addition of large numbers of sensory axons together with deletion of a few. Thus modeling of the nerves is essentially complete within the first intermolt in tandem with changes in the motoneurons but well ahead of changes in the muscle and external morphology. Conversion of the major nerves to the minor type is via massive degeneration of sensory axons during the first and second intermolts because of the loss of their peripherally located cell bodies. This is followed by proliferation of largely unmyelinated axons in the third intermolt, some of which become myelinated in the subsequent intermolts. Thus remodeling of the major nerves to minor, which is associated with the loss of a claw and the regeneration of a new minor claw, is a more traumatic and prolonged process compared to the remodeling of the minor nerves to major which is associated with the transformation of an existing claw.