Neuromuscular metamorphosis in the moth Manduca sexta: hormonal regulation of synapses loss and remodeling.

The motor system of the moth Manduca sexta is completely remodeled during the pupal-adult transformation (PAT). It is stable until the formation of the pupal stage (0% PAT), but larval motor end plates become disrupted by 5% PAT and are lost by 10% PAT, at the time that the muscle has begun to degenerate. Most of the axonal arbor is retracted by 15% with the first signs of adult sprouts appearing by 20% PAT, coinciding with proliferative activity in the remains of the larval muscle. Extensive growth of the axonal arbor begins after 30% PAT, with an initial phase of rapid longitudinal growth (35-50% PAT) and then the production of short transverse branches that then form sprays of end plates (50-70% PAT). Growth and maturation of the end plates occupies the remainder of metamorphosis. Neuromuscular metamorphosis was interfered with by systemic or local treatment with a mimic of the insect juvenile hormone. The results of these treatments suggest that some aspects of the removal of larval axonal branches requires cues from the target. For the sprouting response, the rapid longitudinal growth over the muscle appears to be due to ecdysteroids acting directly on the cell body of the motoneuron. By contrast, the subsequent production and maintenance of transverse sprouts and the corresponding end plates may be an indirect response to stimulation of muscle growth and differentiation by ecdysteroids.