Developmental and genetic mechanisms of neural circuit evolution

Dev Biol. 2017 Nov 1;431(1):16-25. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2017.06.016. Epub 2017 Jun 20.

Abstract

Regardless of how a nervous system is genetically built, natural selection is acting on the functional outcome of its activity. To understand how nervous systems evolve, it is essential to analyze how their functional units - the neural circuits - change and adapt over time. A neural circuit can evolve in many different ways, and the underlying developmental and genetic mechanisms involve different sets of genes. Therefore, the comparison of gene expression can help reconstructing circuit evolution, as demonstrated by several examples in sensory systems. Functional constraints on neural circuit evolution suggest that in nervous systems developmental and genetic variants do not appear randomly, and that the evolution of neuroanatomy might be biased. Sensory systems, in particular, seem to evolve along trajectories that enhance their evolvability, ensuring adaptation to different environments.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biological Evolution
  • Evolution, Molecular
  • Gene Duplication
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
  • Gene Regulatory Networks
  • Models, Genetic
  • Models, Neurological
  • Mutation
  • Nerve Net / cytology
  • Nerve Net / growth & development*
  • Nerve Net / physiology
  • Selection, Genetic
  • Sensory Receptor Cells / cytology
  • Sensory Receptor Cells / physiology