ArticleTheory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften2005
Genes and homology in nervous system evolution: comparing gene functions, expression patterns, and cell type molecular fingerprints.
Article in Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evolutionary trends in the emergence of skeletal cell types.Evolution letters · 2025Article
- Comparative analysis of squamate brains unveils multi-level variation in cerebellar architecture associated with locomotor specialization.Nature communications · 2019Article
- The Origin of Animal Multicellularity and Cell Differentiation.Developmental cell · 2017Review
- Empirical approaches to the study of language evolution.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2017Review
- The Pax gene family: Highlights from cephalopods.PloS one · 2017Article
- A Conserved Developmental Mechanism Builds Complex Visual Systems in Insects and Vertebrates.Current biology : CB · 2016Review
- The insect central complex as model for heterochronic brain development-background, concepts, and tools.Development genes and evolution · 2016Review
- The evolutionary diversity of insect retinal mosaics: common design principles and emerging molecular logic.Trends in genetics : TIG · 2015Review
- On the evolutionary relationship between chondrocytes and osteoblasts.Frontiers in genetics · 2015Review
- Evolving gene regulatory networks into cellular networks guiding adaptive behavior: an outline how single cells could have evolved into a centralized neurosensory system.Cell and tissue research · 2015Review
- A relative shift in cloacal location repositions external genitalia in amniote evolution.Nature · 2014Article
- Evolution of the osteoblast: skeletogenesis in gar and zebrafish.BMC evolutionary biology · 2012Article
- Candidate gene screen in the red flour beetle Tribolium reveals six3 as ancient regulator of anterior median head and central complex development.PLoS genetics · 2011Article
- Developmental expression of COE across the Metazoa supports a conserved role in neuronal cell-type specification and mesodermal development.Development genes and evolution · 2010Article
- Exploiting cellular-developmental evolution as the scientific basis for preventive medicine.Medical hypotheses · 2009Article
- On the independent origins of complex brains and neurons.Brain, behavior and evolution · 2009Review
- The origin and evolution of the neural crest.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2008Review
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Abstract
The evolution of the nervous system is one of the most fascinating, but also most nebulous fields of homology research. We do not know for example whether the last common ancestors of human, squid, and fly already possessed an elaborate brain and eyes, or rather had a simple, diffuse nervous system. Nevertheless, in the past decade molecular data has greatly advanced our understanding of bilaterian nervous system evolution. In this methodological review, I explain the four levels on which molecular genetic studies advance the quest for homologies between animal nervous systems. (I) Bioinformatic homology research elucidates the evolutionary history of gene families relevant for nervous system evolution such as the opsin superfamily. It tells us when and in what order genes and their functions have emerged. Based on this, we can (II) infer the organismal complexity of some remote ancestor from the functional diversity of its reconstructed proteome. (III) Most common in molecular homology research has been the comparison of expression patterns of developmental control genes. This approach matches and aligns embryonic regions along the body axes, between remote bilaterians. It does not tell us much, however, about the complexity of structures that developed from these regions in Urbilateria. (IV) This is overcome by a novel variant of molecular homology research, the comparison of cell types. Here, a similar "molecular fingerprint" of cells is taken as indication of cross-bilaterian homology. This approach makes it possible to reconstruct the cell-type repertoire of the urbilaterian nervous system.
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