Coordination of Locomotion by Serotonergic Neurons in the Predatory Gastropod Pleurobranchaea californica .

Similar design characterizes neuronal networks for goal-directed motor control across the complex, segmented vertebrates, insects, and polychaete annelids with jointed appendages. Evidence is lacking for whether this design evolved independently in those lineages, evolved in parallel with segmentation and appendages, or could have been present in a soft-bodied common ancestor. We examined coordination of locomotion in an unsegmented, ciliolocomoting gastropod, the sea slug Pleurobranchaea californica , which may better resemble the urbilaterian ancestor. Previously, bilateral A-cluster neurons in cerebral ganglion lobes were found to compose a multifunctional premotor network controlling the escape swim and feeding suppression, and mediating action selection for approach or avoidance turns. Serotonergic As interneurons of this cluster were critical elements for swimming, turning, and behavioral arousal. Here, known functions were extended to show that the As2/3 cells of the As group drove crawling locomotion via descending signals to pedal ganglia effector networks for ciliolocomotion and were inhibited during fictive feeding and withdrawal. Crawling was suppressed in aversive turns, defensive withdrawal, and active feeding, but not during stimulus-approach turns or prebite proboscis extension. Ciliary beating was not inhibited during escape swimming. These results show how locomotion is adaptively coordinated in tracking, handling, and consuming resources, and in defense. Taken with previous results, they also show that the A-cluster network acts similarly to the vertebrate reticular formation with its serotonergic raphe nuclei in facilitating locomotion, postural movements, and motor arousal. Thus, the general scheme controlling locomotion and posture might well have preceded the evolution of segmented bodies and articulated appendages. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Similar design in the neuronal networks for goal-directed motor control is seen across the complex, segmented vertebrates, insects, and polychaete annelids with jointed appendages. Whether that design evolved independently or in parallel with complexity in body and behavior has been unanswered. Here it is shown that a simple sea slug, with primitive ciliary locomotion and lacking segmentation and appendages, has similar modular design in network coordination as vertebrates for posture in directional turns and withdrawal, locomotion, and general arousal. This suggests that a general neuroanatomical framework for the control of locomotion and posture could have arisen early during the evolution of bilaterians.