The apical sensory organ of a gastropod veliger is a receptor for settlement cues

On the basis of anatomy and larval behavior, the apical sensory organ (ASO) of gastropod veliger larvae has been implicated as the site of perception of cues for settlement and metamorphosis. Until now, there have been no exp erimental data to support this hypothesis. In this study, cells in the ASO of veliger larvae of the tropical nudibranch Phestilla sibogae were stained with the styryl vital dye DASPEI and then irradiated with a narrow excitat ory light beam on a fluorescence microscope. When its ASO cells were bleach ed by irradiation for 20 min or longer, an otherwise healthy larva was no l onger able to respond to the usual metamorphic cue, a soluble metabolite fr om a coral prey of the adult nudibranch. The irradiated cells absorbed the dye acridine orange, suggesting that they were dying. When larvae not stain ed with DASPEI were similarly irradiated, or when stained larvae were irrad iated with the light beam focused on other parts of the body, there was no loss of ability to metamorphose. Together these data provide strong support for the hypothesis. Potassium and cesium ions, known to induce metamorphos is in larvae of many marine-invertebrate phyla, continue to induce metamorp hosis in larvae that have lost the ability to respond to the coral inducer due to staining and irradiation. These results demonstrate that (1) the ASO -ablated larvae have not lost the ability to metamorphose and (2) the ions do not act only on the metamorphic-signal receptor cells, but at other site s downstream in the metamorphic signal transduction pathway.