Camponotus Japonicus Antennal Lobe Ultrastructure And Immuno-electron Microscopy Analysis

The antennal lobe is the primary center in most animal species. Glomeruli are thought to represent the functional units in the processing of olfactory information of the antennal lobe in both vertebrate and invertebrate. Thus, investigating the nervous activities through insect glomeruli, which are correspondingly simple, can throw light upon researches on brain nerve in vertebrate and furthermore promote the studies on the mechanism of brain physiology and pathology. In this paper, we have experimented on the ant Componotus japonicus to study their glomeruli and peripheral components at ultrastructural level. The results are as follows: 1 .There are many spheroidal glomeruli in the antennal lobe, either as individuals or in combination, surrounded by neuron cells, coarse neuropil, i.e. nonglomeruli region and more or less glia or glial processes. 2. Glomeruli are distinguished by their dense neuropil compared with peripheral coarse neuropil. Almost all the synapses in the antennal lobe take place within the glomeruli. Furthermore, many organella such as mitochondria, endoplastic reticulums are seen.On the other hand, through immunoelectron microscopic array, we could find out the quality and quantify of neural transmitters, which contributes to discuss the law of neural activity. The experimental course is formed by referring to a great deal of articles. The most advantage of this method lies in the embedding blocks that are hard enough to be cut into thin sections. The result indicated that some of the synaptic areas assumed distinct GABA-immunoreaction. Although many vesicles existed in some synaptic areas, only a small part of vesicles appeared GABA-immunoreaction. Maybe GABA is cotransmitter, that is to say, there are some other neural transmitters to modulate the neural activity altogether.