Data from: Serial-section atlas of the Tritonia pedal ganglion

The pedal ganglion of the nudibranch gastropod Tritonia diomedea has been the focus of neurophysiological studies for more than 50 years. These investigations have examined the neural basis of behaviors as diverse as swimming, crawling, reflex withdrawals, orientation to water flow, orientation to the earth’s magnetic field, and learning. In spite of this sustained research focus, most studies have confined themselves to the layer of neurons that are visible on the ganglion’s surface, leaving many neurons, which reside in deeper layers, largely unknown and thus unstudied. To facilitate work on such neurons, the present study used serial section light microscopy to generate a detailed pictorial atlas of the pedal ganglion. One pedal ganglion was sectioned horizontally at 2 µm, and another vertically at 5 µm intervals. The resulting images were examined separately or combined into stacks to generate movie tours through the ganglion. These were also used to generate 3D reconstructions of individual neurons, and rotating movies of digitally desheathed whole ganglia to reveal all surface neurons. A complete neuron count of the horizontally sectioned ganglion yielded 1885 neurons. Real and virtual sections from the image stacks were used to reveal the morphology of individual neurons, as well as the major axon bundles traveling within the ganglion to and between its several nerves and connectives. Extensive supplemental data are provided, as well as a link to the Dryad Data Repository site where the complete sets of high resolution serial section images can be downloaded.

裸鳃腹足类（nudibranch gastropod）动物迪莫德特里通海牛（Tritonia diomedea）的足神经节（pedal ganglion），已作为核心研究对象开展神经生理学研究超过50年。过往相关研究已探明游泳、爬行、反射性退缩、水流定向、地磁场定向以及学习等多种行为的神经基础。尽管该领域受到长期持续的研究关注，但绝大多数现有研究仅局限于神经节表面可见的神经元层，导致大量位于深层的神经元几乎未被探明，因而尚未得到系统性研究。为推动此类深层神经元的相关研究，本研究采用连续切片光学显微镜术（serial section light microscopy），构建了该足神经节的详细图像图谱。本研究对一枚足神经节进行厚度为2微米的水平切片，对另一枚进行间隔为5微米的垂直切片。所得图像可单独检视，或整合为图像栈以生成贯穿神经节的动态漫游影像。该图像栈还可用于生成单个神经元的三维重建模型，以及经数字化脱鞘处理的完整神经节的旋转动画，从而完整呈现所有表面神经元。对该水平切片神经节的完整神经元计数结果显示，其神经元总数为1885个。图像栈所包含的真实切片与虚拟切片，可用于展示单个神经元的形态，以及神经节内连接其多条神经与连合的主要轴突束的走行路径。本研究附带大量补充数据，并提供了Dryad数据仓储（Dryad Data Repository）的链接，用户可通过该链接下载全套高分辨率连续切片图像。