ArticleNature2018
Convergent evolution of bilaterian nerve cords.
Article in Nature, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 74 papers.
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Who cites it
74 citing papers in PubMed, 234 citations in OpenAlex.
- Tunable AMPA receptor function via recurrent evolution of heterotetramers.The Journal of general physiology · 2026Article
- Revisiting nerve nets: functional organization and evolutionary implications.The EMBO journal · 2026Review
- The anti-neural role of BMP signaling is a consequence of its ancestral function in dorsoventral patterning.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- An Increase in Animal Diversity was Facilitated by Ecologically-Driven Brain Complexity Throughout the Cambrian.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Brachiopod genome unveils the evolution of BMP signalling in bilaterian body patterning.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Evidence of autonomous neural specification for both brain and ventral nerve cord tissue in Annelida.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Early nervous system development in the chaetognathFrontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Article
- Anterior-posterior patterning in the chaetognath Spadella cephaloptera informs bilaterian nervous system and tail evolution.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Early transitions in the evolution of cognition.History and philosophy of the life sciences · 2025Article
- The ancient dialogue between brain and body.Current biology : CB · 2025Article
- Cell fate specification modes shape transcriptome evolution in the highly conserved spiral cleavage.EMBO reports · 2025Article
- Evolutionary diversification of ancestral genes across vertebrates and insects.Genome biology · 2025Article
- A single-cell atlas of the bobtail squid visual and nervous system highlights molecular principles of convergent evolution.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Antero-posterior patterning in the brittle star Amphipholis squamata and the evolution of echinoderm body plans.EvoDevo · 2025Article
- On the prospects of basal cognition research becoming fully evolutionary: promising avenues and cautionary notes.History and philosophy of the life sciences · 2025Article
- An ancient apical patterning system sets the position of the forebrain in chordates.Science advances · 2025Article
- The Acoel nervous system: morphology and development.Neural development · 2024Review
- Evolution of tissue-specific expression of ancestral genes across vertebrates and insects.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Unfolding the ventral nerve center of chaetognaths.Neural development · 2024Article
- Capitella teleta gets left out: possible evolutionary shift causes loss of left tissues rather than increased neural tissue from dominant-negative BMPR1.Neural development · 2024Article
14 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
It has been hypothesized that a condensed nervous system with a medial ventral nerve cord is an ancestral character of Bilateria. The presence of similar dorsoventral molecular patterns along the nerve cords of vertebrates, flies, and an annelid has been interpreted as support for this scenario. Whether these similarities are generally found across the diversity of bilaterian neuroanatomies is unclear, and thus the evolutionary history of the nervous system is still contentious. Here we study representatives of Xenacoelomorpha, Rotifera, Nemertea, Brachiopoda, and Annelida to assess the conservation of the dorsoventral nerve cord patterning. None of the studied species show a conserved dorsoventral molecular regionalization of their nerve cords, not even the annelid Owenia fusiformis, whose trunk neuroanatomy parallels that of vertebrates and flies. Our findings restrict the use of molecular patterns to explain nervous system evolution, and suggest that the similarities in dorsoventral patterning and trunk neuroanatomies evolved independently in Bilateria.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.