Adult neurogenesis: examples from the decapod crustaceans and comparisons with mammals

Defining evolutionary origins is a means of understanding an organism's position within the integrated web of living beings, and not only to trace characteristics back in time, but also to project forward in an attempt to reveal relationships with more recently evolved forms. Both the vertebrates and arthropods possess condensed nervous systems, but this is dorsal in the vertebrates and ventral in the arthropods. Also, whereas the nervous system in the vertebrates develops from a neural tube in the embryo, that of the arthropods comes from an ectodermal plate. Despite these apparently fundamental differences, it is now generally accepted that life-long neurogenesis, the generation of functionally integrated neurons from progenitor cells, is a common feature of the adult brains of a variety of organisms, ranging from insects and crustaceans to birds and mammals. Among decapod crustaceans, there is evidence for adult neurogenesis in basal species of the Dendrobranchiata, as well as in more recent terrestrial, marine and fresh-water species. The widespread nature of this phenomenon in decapod species may relate to the importance of the adult-born neurons, although their functional contribution is not yet known. The many similarities between the systems generating neurons in the adult brains of decapod crustaceans and mammals, reviewed in this paper, suggest that adult neurogenesis is governed by common ancestral mechanisms that have been retained in a phylogenetically broad group of species.