A study found that the origin of neurons is found in ancient marine organisms

Neurons are a type of cell that form the main component of the nervous system. They are responsible for receiving, processing and transmitting information through two types of signals: chemical and electrical.

Until recently Origin of nerve cells They were in the Unknown Nebula, but it is now known that these can be created in a few Marine organisms Its size is about one millimeter.

It is a small, paste-shaped marine animal with cells that share striking similarities with neurons. It may have given rise to these cells in humans and other animals.

The human brain consists of 100 billion neurons Each one can be linked to 10,000 others. Her study is an enormous map of science, a journey about which little is known in each investigation, but whose routes remain mostly unknown. Now, new research has just been published in cellIt opens the door to new knowledge about the origin of neurons.

This new research by scientists at the Center for Genome Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona suggests that neurons may have arisen from special peptidergic secretory cells found in holomorphic marine organisms called placozoans. “These organisms lack neurons, but we have now found surprising molecular similarities to our own neurons,” said Xavier Grau-Bovy, one of the study’s authors and a postdoctoral researcher at the CRG.

Placozoans are ancient animals that live in warm oceans. They have been around for 800 million years and are considered the simplest creatures on Earth. Its millimeter-sized body (about the size of a grain of sand) lacks organs and consists only of various types of primitive cells.

“The peculiarity of placozoans reminds us that when we look at the entire animal kingdom, we can find many organisms with a biology radically different from our own. However, they can teach us many lessons about ourselves.” Biology and evolutionary history“, reported Xavier Grau Bovey.

The team of scientists mapped all the placozoan cells and studied how their DNA regulates different genetic characteristics. This information allowed them to understand the function and mechanism of action of each. “What we have now done is to map out a rough draft of the communication network between placozoan cells: we have a clearer understanding of which ones express neuropeptides and which receptors into which each neuropeptide can fit,” Bovey explained.

From a chemical point of view, “it’s a kind of keys and locks system,” he added. This is an important first step towards understanding how small these things are Mindless beings They coordinate their complex behaviors.

To advance their research, they then compared placozoan cells to different cells from complex organisms such as humans to see if there were similarities. In addition to discovering neuropeptides and their receptors, researchers have found many more Similarity Between peptidergic cells in placozoites and human neurons.

For example, the former contains almost all the genes needed to build the presynaptic structure, a protein complex that facilitates the firing of neurons. Neurotransmitters In signal-transmitting neurons found in complex animals. Basically, scaffolding is what is made Synapse In our brain. Surprisingly, peptidergic cells also have a recipe for developing their own synapses.

Another similarity is that placozoan secretory cells, like neurons, use cell signaling molecules similar to neuropeptides to detect external signals to communicate and perform various physiological activities.

Furthermore, differentiation of peptidergic cells into epithelial progenitor cells occurs through signals such as those observed in NeurogenesisIt is the process that leads to the emergence of new neurons in complex animals from jellyfish to humans. “We saw that the process by which these cells develop is strikingly reminiscent of the process of neurogenesis in other species, with key cell signaling mechanisms present in both,” Bove continued.

The researchers point out that although peptidergic cells are far from being true neurons, these similarities suggest they may have played a role in the evolution of neurons. The specialist concluded: “We hope that future research will shed more light on these results and confirm this unprecedented story about the origin of neurons.”