Ultrastructural development of Rohon-Beard neurons: loss of intramitochondrial granules parallels loss of calcium action potentials.

We have examined the ultrastructure of the cell body of a vertebrate spinal neuron, the Rohon-Beard cell of Xenopus laevis, at four stages during its development (Nieuwkoop and Faber stages: 22, 29/30, 37/38 and 42). At this time it has attained its electrical excitability and the action potential mechanism in the cell body is maturing through a sequence of stages in which the inward current is carried by Ca++ (stages 20-25), later by Ca++ and Na+ (stages 25-40), and finally by Na+ (stages 40-51) (Spitzer and Baccaglini, '76; Baccaglini and Spitzer, '77). There is a change in the abundance and distribution of the organelles in the perikaryon during this period, characteristic of other developing neurons. Mitochondria and Golgi apparatus become localized progressively more in the interior of the cells, and rough endoplasmic reticulum progressively more to the periphery where it often appears in orderly tiers parallel to the plasma membrane. The mitochondria contain dense intramitochondrial granules which are known in other cells to contain concentrations of divalent cations. The number of granules declines over the course of the developmental period studied. The presence of the intramitochondrial granules was examined quantitatively because electrophysiological data indicate that the amount of Ca++ entering the cells in early stages should raise the internal Ca++ concentration by several orders of magnitude, and that Ca++ is rapidly sequestered (Baccaglini and Spitzer, '77). A minimum of 200 mitochondrial profiles from at least four Rohon-Beard cells were scored for the presence of dense intramitochondrial granules at each stage studied. In stage 22 Rohon-Beard cells 75 +/- 5% (mean +/- SD, n = 4) of the mitochondrial profiles scored contained granules; in stage 29/30, 56 +/- 10% (n = 7); in stage 37/38, 3 +/- 3% (n = 5); and in stage 42, 0.5 +/- 0.25% (n = 4). Therefore, dense intramitochondrial granules, an indication of calcium accumulation in mitochondria, decrease in parallel with the loss of the Ca++ component of the inward current of the action potential in Rohon-Beard neurons.