For my first post on 🦋, I am incredibly excited to share that my PhD paper has been published in #ScienceAdvances! We compared the development of the anterior neuroectoderm to uncover how the chordate #forebrain evolved 🧠. Have a look at the summary 🧵 below! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... - ThreadSky

giacomogattoni.bsky.social • 28 days ago

For my first post on 🦋, I am incredibly excited to share that my PhD paper has been published in #ScienceAdvances!

We compared the development of the anterior neuroectoderm to uncover how the chordate #forebrain evolved 🧠. Have a look at the summary 🧵 below!

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adq4731

Comments

sodail.bsky.social•27 days ago

Congrats @giacomogattoni.bsky.social !! Very interesting read

giacomogattoni.bsky.social•27 days ago

Thank you so much Sodai! 😄

giacomogattoni.bsky.social•28 days ago

All chordates, including vertebrates, have a dorsal neural tube with an anterior brain, suggesting this structure dates back at least to their common ancestor ~550 million years ago. But when and how did the chordate brain evolve?

giacomogattoni.bsky.social•28 days ago

This question has long puzzled scientists, especially since chordates' closest relatives (echinoderms and hemichordates) lack a brain! ⭐ However, their larvae have an anterior concentration of neurons - the apical organ - which has sparked interest due to its conservation across invertebrates.

giacomogattoni.bsky.social•28 days ago

Interestingly, the genes controlling development of the anterior neuroectoderm (ANE) are highly conserved in distantly related animals, suggesting the presence of an ancient regulatory system (aGRN) that begins with early interactions between Wnt signalling and anterior Six3/6 and FoxQ2 genes.

giacomogattoni.bsky.social•28 days ago

aGRN genes are expressed in the apical organ of echinoderms/hemichordates, and many of them are also active in the vertebrate forebrain! Does this mean that the forebrain is evolutionary related to the ANE of invertebrates? And if so, how was it positioned on the anterior end of the neural tube?

giacomogattoni.bsky.social•28 days ago

Previous studies in vertebrates also showed that ectopic neural axes induced by chordin expression often lack the anterior portion, hinting that the anterior brain might be specified by a different, unknown mechanism. Could this specification be related to the expression of aGRN genes?

giacomogattoni.bsky.social•28 days ago

To address all these questions, we turned to our favorite model, the basally-branching chordate #amphioxus. Amphioxus has a (simple) tubular brain like vertebrates, but it also expresses Six3/6 and FoxQ2 early in development, similar to echinoderms and hemichordates.

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