Pattern of expression of engrailed in relation to gamma‐aminobutyric acid immunoreactivity in the central nervous system of the adult grasshopper

Abstract

Engrailed (En) protein expression in neurons of the mesothoracic and metathoracic ganglia of the adult grasshopper, Schistocerca americana, was examined by immunohistochemistry. Each neuromere had a dorsally located cluster of En-positive neurons within the dorsal unpaired median (DUM) group, comprising one cluster in the mesothoracic ganglion (T2) and four clusters in the metathoracic ganglion, one for each component neuromere (T3, A1, A2, A3). Ventrally, En-positive neurons occurred in the posterior one-third of each neuromere. In T2 and T3, three ventral groups of neurons were labeled bilaterally. In the abdominal neuromeres, many fewer ventral neurons were En-positive. These also were bilaterally symmetrical, but did not occur in patterns that allowed assignment of homology with the T2 and T3 groups. Altogether, En-positive neurons comprised roughly 10% of the ganglionic populations. In the bilateral groups, as in the DUM groups, En expression was restricted to interneurons, consistent with the suggestion that En expression contributes to some aspect of interneuronal phenotype. En-positive neurons in the DUM groups also expressed gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) immunoreactivity. Further study showed that all neurons in one En-positive bilateral group and some neurons in another bilateral group were GABA immunoreactive, but that neurons in a third bilateral group were En-positive only. Additionally, several discrete clusters of neurons were GABA-immunoreactive but En-negative. A provisional morphological scheme is presented, which relates the several neuronal clusters to their likely neuroblasts of origin, as a basis for further research into the composition of neuronal lineages.