Localization of the violet and yellow receptor cells in the crayfish retinula

Cellular identification of color receptors in crayfish compound eyes has been made by selective adaptation at 450 nm and 570 nm, wavelengths near the lambda(max)'s of the two retinular cell classes previously demonstrated. By utilizing earlier evidence, the concentration of lysosome-related bodies (LRB) was used to measure relative light adaptation and thus wavelength sensitivity in 665 retinular cells from six eyes. The observed particle distributions demonstrate the following. Both violet and yellow receptors occur ordinarily in each retinula. Of the seven regular retinular cells two (R(3) and R(4) using Eguchi's numbering [1965]) have mean sensitivities significantly greater to violet and less to yellow than the other five. The latter apparently comprise "pure" yellow receptors (R(1) and R(7)) and mixed yellow and violet receptors (R(2), R(5), and R(6)). Explanations of such ambiguity requiring two visual pigments in single retinular cells or intercellular coupling of adjacent neuroreceptors are apparently precluded by previous evidence. Present data imply alternatively some positional variability in the violet pair's location in individual retinulas. Thus R(3) and R(4) are predominantly the violet receptors but in some retinulas R(2) and R(3) or R(4) and R(5) (or rarely some other cell pairs) may be. The retinal distribution of such variations has yet to be determined. In agreement with intracellular recordings the blue and yellow cells here identified belong to both the vertical and horizontal e-vector sensitive channels.