Development of the insect stomatogastric nervous system

The stomatogastric nervous system (SNS) forms a network of peripheral ganglia associated with the insect gut. The SNS originates from a neuroepithelial placode which dissolves into a population of migrating neural precursors. The formation of the SNS presents many parallels to the development of the vertebrate peripheral nervous system. Recent studies have started to provide answers for pertinent questions in SNS development, in particular, how the SNS placode is specified, how SNS precursors are released in a reproducible pattern from this placode and how different cell types in the SNS are determined.