Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Getting Nervous: An Evolutionary Overhaul for Communication.

Frederique Varoqueaux1, Dirk Fasshauer1

  • 1Département des Neurosciences Fondamentales, Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, CH-1005 Switzerland; email: Frederique.Varoqueaux@unil.ch , Dirk.Fasshauer@unil.ch.

Annual Review of Genetics
|September 22, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Rapid and interpretable protein contact map prediction using a pattern-matching strategy.

Physical biology·2026
Same author

A look beyond the QR code of SNARE proteins.

Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society·2024
Same author

Long-Term Culturing of Placozoans (Trichoplax and Hoilungia).

Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)·2024
Same author

Exploring the conformational changes of the Munc18-1/syntaxin 1a complex.

Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society·2023
Same author

Megaviruses contain various genes encoding for eukaryotic vesicle trafficking factors.

Traffic (Copenhagen, Denmark)·2022
Same author

BET1 variants establish impaired vesicular transport as a cause for muscular dystrophy with epilepsy.

EMBO molecular medicine·2021

The first animals likely possessed neurosecretory cells, forming early neuronal networks. This research explores the evolutionary origins of animal nervous systems and neuronal communication.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Neuroscience
  • Animal origins

Background:

  • The nervous system is a key animal innovation for bodily control, utilizing neurons for rapid cell-cell communication via synapses.
  • Synaptic transmission involves calcium-dependent transmitter release and receptor activation.
  • The evolutionary origin of neuronal communication from simpler processes is a significant biological challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore scenarios for the evolutionary transition to neuronal communication in early animals.
  • To investigate the origins of the nervous system as a control system.

Main Methods:

  • Genomic comparisons across animal phyla.
  • Analysis of gene sets related to neuronal communication.
  • Discussion of evolutionary scenarios.
Keywords:
CATCHR complexRab proteinsSNARE proteinsendosomelysosomeregulated secretionvesicle trafficking

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • All animals, including basal lineages like poriferans, share core genes for neuronal communication.
  • This suggests that the earliest animal (Urmetazoan) possessed neurosecretory cells.
  • These cells likely initiated the formation of neuronal networks shortly after.

Conclusions:

  • The fundamental machinery for neuronal communication predates the evolution of a complex nervous system.
  • Early animals likely utilized neurosecretory cells as precursors to neurons.
  • The transition to neuronal networks was a pivotal event in early animal evolution.