Role of competition among sensory neurons in regulation of pattern of innervation at their central and peripheral targets.

1. The importance of competitive interactions among muscle sensory afferents on their projections to central and peripheral targets was studied by producing large reductions in the number of afferents during development. Removal of the brachial dorsal root ganglion (DRG2), which normally supplies the entire sensory innervation of the forelimb, in bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) tadpoles caused a smaller number of neurons in the adjacent thoracic ganglion (DRG3) to sprout into the forelimb and into the brachial spinal cord. 2. Horseradish peroxidase labeling in postmetamorphic animals showed that DRG3 neurons innervating the triceps muscle arborize in a novel but now appropriate area of the spinal cord, the region containing motoneuronal dendrites. These foreign afferents do not arborize in inappropriate regions of the spinal gray matter, and their collaterals have the same rostrocaudal distribution as those of normal DRG2 muscle afferents. 3. After metamorphosis, the number of DRG3 sensory axons in individual triceps muscle nerves was determined. Normally, two-thirds of all triceps afferents project to the medial head alone, even though each of the three heads is of similar size and is contacted by similar numbers of motoneurons. After DRG2 removal, although the total number of DRG3 afferents projecting to the triceps muscle was smaller than normal, the medial head still received approximately two-thirds of the axons, just as in normal frogs. These results suggest that the proportional sensory innervation of the triceps muscle-heads is not dependent on competitive interactions among afferents. 4. DRG3 afferents projecting to the forelimb also sprouted to innervate appropriate brachial motoneurons. The average strength of connection between individual sensory and motor neurons was found to be the same as in normal animals, even though there was presumably more central target space available for each afferent axon. This suggests that the number and/or strength of central connections made by individual fibers may be an intrinsic property of muscle sensory neurons.