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More than one way to a central nervous system

Have the molecular mechanisms that are linked to the developmental organization of centralized nervous systems evolved once or multiple times? Evidence from nine animal species points to the latter.
  1. Caroline B. Albertin

    1. Caroline B. Albertin is in the Department of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.

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  2. Clifton W. Ragsdale

    1. Clifton W. Ragsdale is in the Department of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.

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Animal nervous systems come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from a handful of neurons to large, complex brains. A key question has been whether the centralized nervous systems found in many bilaterally symmetrical animals (bilaterians), which include vertebrates and insects, share a common evolutionary origin, or evolved more than once. At a superficial level, both flies and vertebrates boast a brain connected to a single nerve cord that extends into the trunk. In addition, molecular data indicate that key regulatory genes are deployed similarly during nervous-system development in vertebrates, flies1 and another bilaterian, a segmented worm (an annelid)2. These similarities have been interpreted as evidence for evolutionary conservation of an ancient bilaterian developmental program for centralized nervous systems. But on page 45, Martín-Durán and colleagues3 provide evidence for the independent evolution of such nervous systems.

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Nature 553, 34-36 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-017-08195-4

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