小柯机器人

英国牛津大学Sebastian M. Shimeld研究组探明Hmx基因保留确定了脊椎动物颅神经节的起源。2022年5月18日出版的《自然》杂志发表了该项成果。

他们表明同源盒转录因子 Hmx 是脊椎动物感觉神经节发育的组成成分，并且在小肠绦虫中，Hmx 是驱动双极尾神经元分化程序所必要且充分的，这些细胞以前被认为是神经嵴的同源物。使用绦虫和七鳃鳗转基因，他们证明了茎-脊椎动物谱系中，一个独特的、串联重复的增强子对调节的 Hmx 表达。他们还在绦虫中展示了明显强大的脊椎动物 Hmx 增强子功能，表明上游调控网络的深度保留跨越了脊椎动物的进化起源。这些实验证明了绦虫和脊椎动物 Hmx 之间的调节和功能保护，并指出双极尾神经元是颅感觉神经节的同源物。

研究人员表示，脊椎动物的进化起源包括与掠夺性生活方式的获得相关的感官处理方面的创新。脊椎动物通过由颅感觉神经节服务的感觉系统感知外部刺激，其神经元主要来自颅基板；然而，由于活体谱系之间的解剖学差异以及细胞类型和结构之间的同源性分配困难，阻碍了对基板和颅感觉神经节进化起源的理解。

附：英文原文

Title: Hmx gene conservation identifies the origin of vertebrate cranial ganglia

Author: Papadogiannis, Vasileios, Pennati, Alessandro, Parker, Hugo J., Rothbcher, Ute, Patthey, Cedric, Bronner, Marianne E., Shimeld, Sebastian M.

Issue&Volume: 2022-05-18

Abstract: The evolutionary origin of vertebrates included innovations in sensory processing associated with the acquisition of a predatory lifestyle1. Vertebrates perceive external stimuli through sensory systems serviced by cranial sensory ganglia, whose neurons arise predominantly from cranial placodes; however, the understanding of the evolutionary origin of placodes and cranial sensory ganglia is hampered by the anatomical differences between living lineages and the difficulty in assigning homology between cell types and structures. Here we show that the homeobox transcription factor Hmx is a constitutive component of vertebrate sensory ganglion development and that in the tunicate Ciona intestinalis, Hmx is necessary and sufficient to drive the differentiation programme of bipolar tail neurons, cells previously thought to be homologues of neural crest2,3. Using Ciona and lamprey transgenesis, we demonstrate that a unique, tandemly duplicated enhancer pair regulated Hmx expression in the stem-vertebrate lineage. We also show notably robust vertebrate Hmx enhancer function in Ciona, demonstrating that deep conservation of the upstream regulatory network spans the evolutionary origin of vertebrates. These experiments demonstrate regulatory and functional conservation between Ciona and vertebrate Hmx, and point to bipolar tail neurons as homologues of cranial sensory ganglia.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04742-w

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04742-w

Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html