Mechanical modeling of mechanosensitive insect strain sensors as a tool to investigate exoskeletal interfaces.

During walking, sensory information is measured and monitored by sensory organs that can be found on and within various limb segments. Strain can be monitored by insect load sensors, campaniform sensilla (CS), which have components embedded within the exoskeleton. CS vary in eccentricity, size, and orientation, which can affect their sensitivity to specific strains.

Subsets of leg proprioceptors influence leg kinematics but not interleg coordination in Drosophila melanogaster walking.

Legged locomotion in terrestrial animals is often essential for mating and survival, and locomotor behavior must be robust and adaptable to be successful. This adaptability is largely provided by proprioceptors monitoring positions and movements of body parts and providing feedback to other components of locomotor networks. In insects, proprioceptive chordotonal organs span joints and encode parameters of relative movement between segments.

Ultra high-resolution biomechanics suggest that substructures within insect mechanosensors decisively affect their sensitivity.

Insect load sensors, called campaniform sensilla (CS), measure strain changes within the cuticle of appendages. This mechanotransduction provides the neuromuscular system with feedback for posture and locomotion. Owing to their diverse morphology and arrangement, CS can encode different strain directions.

Gradients in mechanotransduction of force and body weight in insects.

Posture and walking require support of the body weight, which is thought to be detected by sensory receptors in the legs. Specificity in sensory encoding occurs through the numerical distribution, size and response range of sense organs. We have studied campaniform sensilla, receptors that detect forces as strains in the insect exoskeleton.

Location and arrangement of campaniform sensilla in Drosophila melanogaster.

Sensory systems provide input to motor networks on the state of the body and environment. One such sensory system in insects is the campaniform sensilla (CS), which detect deformations of the exoskeleton arising from resisted movements or external perturbations. When physical strain is applied to the cuticle, CS external structures are compressed, leading to transduction in an internal sensory neuron.