Evolution of nervous systems

Time	14:00-16:00 o’clock iCAL
Start date	03.05.2017
Interval	Every fortnight
Location	H4, Room
Moodle	evonervo2017

This fortnightly seminar discusses recent advances in the understanding of the early evolution of nervous systems.

Following an introductory lecture on the precambrial species in which the first nervous systems evolved, research articles on the following and related topics are discussed

Independent origin of nervous systems in cnidarians and ctenophores

Evolution of Synapses: From endocrinic signalling to synapses

Moroz et al., Independent origins of neurons and synapses: insights from ctenophores
Ryan et al., The origin and evolution of synapses
Emes and Grant, Evolution of Synapse Complexity and Diversity
Ovsepian and Vesselkin, Wiring prior to firing: evolutionary rise of electrical and chemical modes of synaptic transmission
Emes et al., Evolutionary expansion and anatomical specialization of synapse proteome complexity
Burkhard, The origin and evolution of synaptic proteins – choanoflagellates lead the way

The evolution of the glia support system

Hartline, The evolutionary origins of glia
Herculano-Houzel, The glia/neuron ratio: How it varies uniformly across brain structures and species and what that means for brain physiology and evolution
Coles, Glial Cells: Invertebrate
Carlo et al., Structural uniformity of neocortex, revisited

Centralisation from nervnets to the ventral and dorsal nerve cords in protostomes and deuterostomes respectively (evodevo aspects)

Arendt et al., The evolution of nervous system centralization
Satterlie RA, Do jellyfish have central nervous systems?

Developmental and functional aspects of neuronal cell types

The origin of synaptic polarity

The nervous system of ctenophores. III. Ultrastructure of synapses.

The emergence of the axon initial segment and morphological polarity

Neuronal polarity: an evolutionary perspective

The origin of ion channels and excitability

Moran et al., Evolution of voltage-gated ion channels at the emergence of Metazoa

Evolution of myelinisation

Precambrian community ecology and its impact on NS evolution

Checkout some initial reading material by klicking on the respective topic.

We might conclude each meeting with a general discussion on evolutionary scenarios in which it is attempted to synthesis what was learned from different perspectives.

Timetable

03.05.2017	Jan-Hendrik Schleimer	Overview
17.05.2017	Adam Wilkins	Early metazoan phylogeny:
		Independent NS origin in cnidaria
		& ctenophora
31.05.2017		Evolution of synapses
14.06.2017		Evolution of the glia support system
28.06.2017		NO SEMINAR
12.07.2017		NO SEMINAR (Janina’s defence on neural morphology)
26.07.2017		Developmental biology of the nervous system