Real-time telemetry monitoring of oxygen in the central complex of freely-walking Gromphadorhina portentosa

PLoS One. 2019 Nov 11;14(11):e0224932. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224932. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

A new telemetric system for the electrochemical monitoring of dissolved oxygen is showed. The device, connected with two amperometric sensors, has been successfully applied to the wireless detection of the extracellular oxygen in the central complex of freely-walking Gromphadorhina portentosa. The unit was composed of a potentiostat, a two-channel sensor conditioning circuit, a microprocessor module, and a wireless serial transceiver. The amperometric signals were digitalized and sent to a notebook using a 2.4 GHz transceiver while a serial-to-USB converter was connected to a second transceiver for completing the communication bridge. The software, running on the laptop, allowed to save and graph the oxygen signals. The electronics showed excellent stability and the acquired data was linear in a range comprised between 0 and -165 nA, covering the entire range of oxygen concentrations. A series of experiments were performed to explore the dynamics of dissolved oxygen by exposing the animals to different gases (nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide), to low temperature and anesthetic agents (chloroform and triethylamine). The resulting data are in agreement with previous O2 changes recorded in the brain of awake rats and mice. The proposed system, based on simple and inexpensive components, can constitute a new experimental model for the exploration of central complex neurochemistry and it can also work with oxidizing sensors and amperometric biosensors.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biosensing Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Carbon Dioxide / metabolism
  • Chloroform / metabolism
  • Cockroaches / metabolism
  • Cockroaches / physiology*
  • Equipment Design
  • Ethylamines / metabolism
  • Male
  • Nitrogen / metabolism
  • Oxygen / analysis*
  • Remote Sensing Technology / instrumentation*
  • Software
  • Walking
  • Wireless Technology

Substances

  • Ethylamines
  • Carbon Dioxide
  • Chloroform
  • Nitrogen
  • Oxygen
  • triethylamine

Grants and funding

PAS: The research was supported by the University of Sassari (“Fondo di Ateneo per la Ricerca 2019”); GR: The research was supported by the University of Sassari (“Fondo di Ateneo per la Ricerca 2019”); www.uniss.it. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.