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Sullivan LF, Barker MS, Felix PC, Vuong RQ, White BH. Neuromodulation and the toolkit for behavioural evolution: can ecdysis shed light on an old problem? FEBS J 2024; 291:1049-1079. [PMID: 36223183 PMCID: PMC10166064 DOI: 10.1111/febs.16650] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2022] [Revised: 09/06/2022] [Accepted: 10/12/2022] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
The geneticist Thomas Dobzhansky famously declared: 'Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution'. A key evolutionary adaptation of Metazoa is directed movement, which has been elaborated into a spectacularly varied number of behaviours in animal clades. The mechanisms by which animal behaviours have evolved, however, remain unresolved. This is due, in part, to the indirect control of behaviour by the genome, which provides the components for both building and operating the brain circuits that generate behaviour. These brain circuits are adapted to respond flexibly to environmental contingencies and physiological needs and can change as a function of experience. The resulting plasticity of behavioural expression makes it difficult to characterize homologous elements of behaviour and to track their evolution. Here, we evaluate progress in identifying the genetic substrates of behavioural evolution and suggest that examining adaptive changes in neuromodulatory signalling may be a particularly productive focus for future studies. We propose that the behavioural sequences used by ecdysozoans to moult are an attractive model for studying the role of neuromodulation in behavioural evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis F Sullivan
- Section on Neural Function, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Matthew S Barker
- Section on Neural Function, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Princess C Felix
- Section on Neural Function, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Richard Q Vuong
- Section on Neural Function, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Benjamin H White
- Section on Neural Function, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
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Szczupak L. Motor neural networks in the leech. Trends Neurosci 2023; 46:698-700. [PMID: 37422418 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2023.06.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2023] [Accepted: 06/09/2023] [Indexed: 07/10/2023]
Abstract
Leeches display robust motor patterns and exhibit a relatively simple nervous system where neurons are unambiguously identified. This brief article focuses on Hirudo verbana and summarizes how research in this organism has contributed to insights in the field of motor control, where networks have been studied from population down to individual neuron perspectives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lidia Szczupak
- Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE, UBA-CONICET) and Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires (FBMC, FCEN, UBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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Liu J, Liu J, Li M, Zhou L, Kong W, Zhang H, Jin P, Lu F, Lin G, Shi L. Division of developmental phases of freshwater leech Whitmania pigra and key genes related to neurogenesis revealed by whole genome and transcriptome analysis. BMC Genomics 2023; 24:203. [PMID: 37069497 PMCID: PMC10111769 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-023-09286-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2022] [Accepted: 03/30/2023] [Indexed: 04/19/2023] Open
Abstract
The freshwater leech Whitmania pigra (W. pigra) Whitman (Annelida phylum) is a model organism for neurodevelopmental studies. However, molecular biology research on its embryonic development is still scarce. Here, we described a series of developmental stages of the W. pigra embryos and defined five broad stages of embryogenesis: cleavage stages, blastocyst stage, gastrula stage, organogenesis and refinement, juvenile. We obtained a total of 239.64 Gb transcriptome data of eight representative developmental phases of embryos (from blastocyst stage to maturity), which was then assembled into 21,482 unigenes according to our reference genome sequenced by single-molecule real-time (SMRT) long-read sequencing. We found 3114 genes differentially expressed during the eight phases with phase-specific expression pattern. Using a comprehensive transcriptome dataset, we demonstrated that 57, 49 and 77 DEGs were respectively related to morphogenesis, signal pathways and neurogenesis. 49 DEGs related to signal pathways included 30 wnt genes, 14 notch genes, and 5 hedgehog genes. In particular, we found a cluster consisting of 7 genes related to signal pathways as well as synapses, which were essential for regulating embryonic development. Eight genes cooperatively participated in regulating neurogenesis. Our results reveal the whole picture of W. pigra development mechanism from the perspective of transcriptome and provide new clues for organogenesis and neurodevelopmental studies of Annelida species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiali Liu
- Key Lab of Chinese Medicine Resources Conservation, State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the People's Republic of China, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 100193, China Engineering Research Center of Chinese Medicine Resource, Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Jinxin Liu
- Key Lab of Chinese Medicine Resources Conservation, State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the People's Republic of China, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 100193, China Engineering Research Center of Chinese Medicine Resource, Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Mingyue Li
- Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200127, China
| | - Lisi Zhou
- Key Lab of Chinese Medicine Resources Conservation, State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the People's Republic of China, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 100193, China Engineering Research Center of Chinese Medicine Resource, Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Weijun Kong
- School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100069, China
| | - Hailin Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Spine and Spinal Cord Injury Repair and Regeneration of Ministry of Education, Orthopaedic Department of Tongji Hospital, School of Medicine, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200065, China
| | - Panpan Jin
- Key Lab of Chinese Medicine Resources Conservation, State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the People's Republic of China, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 100193, China Engineering Research Center of Chinese Medicine Resource, Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Fuhua Lu
- Key Lab of Chinese Medicine Resources Conservation, State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the People's Republic of China, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 100193, China Engineering Research Center of Chinese Medicine Resource, Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Gufa Lin
- Key Laboratory of Spine and Spinal Cord Injury Repair and Regeneration of Ministry of Education, Orthopaedic Department of Tongji Hospital, School of Medicine, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200065, China.
| | - Linchun Shi
- Key Lab of Chinese Medicine Resources Conservation, State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the People's Republic of China, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 100193, China Engineering Research Center of Chinese Medicine Resource, Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100193, China.
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Glossiphoniid leeches as a touchstone for studies of development in clitellate annelids. Curr Top Dev Biol 2022; 147:433-468. [PMID: 35337458 DOI: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2021.12.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
My goals in this chapter are to share my enthusiasm for studying the biology of leeches, to place this work in context by presenting my rationale for studying non-traditional biological models in general, and to sample just three of the questions that intrigue me in leech biology, namely segmentation, genome evolution and neuronal fate specification. I first became excited about the idea of using leeches as a subject of investigation as an undergraduate in 1970 and have been engaged in this work since I arrived at Berkeley as a postdoc in 1976, intending to study leech neurobiology. Both my research interests and the rationale for the work have expanded greatly since then. What follows is a fragmentary personal and historical account-the interested reader may find more comprehensive treatments elsewhere (Kuo et al., 2020; Shankland & Savage, 1997; Shain, 2009; Weisblat & Huang, 2001; Weisblat & Kuo, 2009, 2014; Weisblat & Winchell, 2020).
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