Associate Professor Richard Poole leads a review of worm neuron genesis and diversification

Associate Professor Richard Poole leads a review, published in Genetics, of how worm neurons are generated, and of the similarities and differences between worms and other organisms, based on the model worm, C. elegans.

Want to know more about how worm neurons are generated, and/or the similarities and differences between worms and other organisms? If so, then Richard Poole, Associate Professor of Developmental Biology in the Research Department of Cell & Developmental Biology would recommend this review!  He wrote it in collaboration with researchers from Spain and the USA, and it is a comprehensive review of how neurons originate in the worm, C. elegans. It's already published online in the journal, Genetics, and will be formally published in the journal in October as part of the well-known WormBook  series.

Animals rely on their nervous systems to process sensory inputs, integrate these with internal signals, and produce behavioural outputs. This isall  enabled by the highly specialized shapes (morphologies) and functions of cells called neurons. These cells share multiple structural and physiological features, but they also come in a large diversity of types or classes that give the nervous system its broad range of functions and plasticity.

This diversity, first recognized over a century ago, spurred classification efforts based on morphology, function and molecular criteria. Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) was the first multicellular organism to have its complete genome sequenced; its genome consists of six chromosomes. It has a precisely-mapped nervous system at the anatomical level; an extensive molecular description of most of its neurons; and genetic amenability, so this worm has been a prime model for understanding how neurons develop and diversify at a mechanistic level.

In this paper, Richard (photo, left), with Nuria Flames and Luisa Cochella, reviews the gene regulatory mechanisms driving neurogenesis and the diversification of neuron classes and subclasses in C. elegans. They found that the identity of a neuron is defined by modules of gene batteries that are under control of parallel, yet interconnected, regulatory mechanisms. To achieve this, cells integrate information along their developmental lineages. Moreover, they found that neurons are diversified post-embryonically in a time-, genetic sex-, and activity-dependent manner. In the paper, they also discuss how the understanding of neuronal development can provide insights into the evolution of neuronal diversity.

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