Chemically mediated neural and behavioral responses in early benthic juvenile Caribbean spiny lobsters, Panulirus argus

Spiny lobsters use their chemical senses to acquire resources such as shelter and food, avoid predators, and interact with conspecifics. However, little is known about if and how these responses change over developmental stages. Here, we used early benthic juvenile stage Caribbean spiny lobsters, Panulirus argus, in calcium imaging studies to investigate physiological properties of olfactory receptor neurons in the olfactory organ, i.e., the antennules, and in behavioral studies to characterize chemically triggered responses. The basic structural organization of the antennules is similar in early benthic juvenile, older juvenile, and adult lobsters. Our calcium imaging studies show that the olfactory receptor neurons of both life stages have generally similar patterns of spontaneous activity, tuning characteristics, sensitivity, and kinetic parameters of responses to chemicals. Our behavioral studies show that early benthic juvenile spiny lobsters have similar behaviors to adults in that they produce currents following stimulation with food-related chemicals, navigate through the chemical plumes to locate the source of food-related chemicals, show alarm responses to conspecific hemolymph, and groom their antennules following stimulation with L-glutamate. Our findings suggest that features of the olfactory organ and its sensory neurons and the behavioral patterns are generally similar across developmental stages, making early benthic juvenile lobsters a favorable model for studying chemosensory transduction, coding mechanisms, and chemical-driven behaviors. The smaller scale of early benthic juvenile lobsters allows the use of compact, miniature benchtop laboratory setups, offering significant flexibility for medium-throughput basic and applied studies.