Rhinophore

A rhinophore is one of a pair of club-shaped structures which are the most prominent part of the external head anatomy of a group of sea slugs, marine gastropod opisthobranch mollusks in the order Nudibranchia, the nudibranchs, specifically the dorid nudibranchs.

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Etymology

The name relates to the rhinophore's function as an organ of "smell". "Rhino-" means nose from ancient greek ῥίς rhis and from its genitive ῥινός rhinos. "Phore" means "to bear" from New Latin -phorus and from Greek -phoros (φορος) "bearing", a derivative of phérein (φέρειν).

Function

Rhinophores are scent or taste receptors, also known as chemosensory organs.

Rhinophores are specialized anterior sensory organs on the dorsal surface of the head. Rhinophore are retractile and primarily used for distance chemoreception and rheoreception (response to water current).[1]

The "scents" detected by rhinophores are chemicals dissolved in the sea water. The fine structure of the rhinophore provides a large surface area so that chemical detection is maximized.[2] This allows the nudibranchs to stay close to their food source (for example species of sea sponges) which are also the living substrate they preferentially inhabit.

In the sea hare Aplysia californica, the rhinophores are able to detect pheromones.[1]

Protection

To protect the prominent rhinophores against nibbling by predators including fish, most species of dorid nudibranchs are able to withdraw their rhinophores into a pocket beneath the skin.[2]

Structure

Rhinophores are small. For example in reproductively mature Aplysia adults the rhinophore is about 1 cm in length.[1]

The neuroanatomical organization of rhinophores includes a rhinophore groove where most of the sensory cells appear to be concentrated. Its sensory epithelium contains sensory neurons that project axons back to rhinophore ganglia and dendrites that end in either a surface-exposed cilium or a small protuberance.[1]

See also

Comparison with oral tentacles: the oral tentacles, which are found more ventrally, are possibly involved in contact chemoreception and mechanoreception in Aplysia californica.[1]

References

This article incorporates CC-BY-2.0 text (but not under GFDL) from reference.[1]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Scott F Cummins, Dirk Erpenbeck, Zhihua Zou, Charles Claudianos, Leonid L Moroz, Gregg T Nagle & Bernard M Degnan. 2009. Candidate chemoreceptor subfamilies differentially expressed in the chemosensory organs of the mollusc Aplysia. BMC Biology 2009, 7:28. doi:10.1186/1741-7007-7-28.
  2. ^ a b Rhinophore in nudibranchs. Sea Slug Forum, accessed 8 July 2009.

Further reading