Clifford Kavan T, Gross Liaini, Johnson Kwame, Martin Khalil J, Shaheen Nagma, Harrington Melissa A
Department of Biology, Morehouse College, Delkaware State University, 1200 North Dupont Highway, Dover, DE 19901, USA.
Behav Neurosci. 2003 Oct;117(5):1086-95. doi: 10.1037/0735-7044.117.5.1086.
Euglandina rosea, a predatory land snail, tracks prey and mates by following slime trails. Euglandina follow slime trails more than 80% of the time, following trails of their own species, but not those of prey snails, in the direction that they were laid. The attractive elements of prey slime are small, water-soluble compounds detected by specialized lip extensions. Although olfaction plays no role in trail following, strong odors disrupt tracking. Inhibition of nitric oxide synthase also disrupts slime trail following, suggesting a role for nitric oxide in neural processing of slime trail stimuli. Euglandina can be conditioned to follow novel trails of glutamate or arginine paired with feeding on prey snails. These experiments demonstrate that slime-trail tracking in Euglandina is a robust, easily measured behavior that makes a good model system for studying sensory processing and learning in a novel modality.
玫瑰狼蜗是一种食肉陆地蜗牛，它通过追踪黏液痕迹来追踪猎物和寻找配偶。玫瑰狼蜗在超过80%的时间里会追踪黏液痕迹，沿着自己同类的痕迹追踪，但不会沿着猎物蜗牛的痕迹追踪，且追踪方向与痕迹留下的方向一致。猎物黏液的吸引成分是由专门的唇部延伸物检测到的小分子水溶性化合物。虽然嗅觉在追踪痕迹方面不起作用，但强烈的气味会干扰追踪。抑制一氧化氮合酶也会干扰对黏液痕迹的追踪，这表明一氧化氮在黏液痕迹刺激的神经处理中起作用。玫瑰狼蜗可以被训练去追踪与以猎物蜗牛为食相关联的谷氨酸或精氨酸的新痕迹。这些实验表明，玫瑰狼蜗对黏液痕迹的追踪是一种强大且易于测量的行为，这使其成为研究新模态下感觉处理和学习的良好模型系统。
