Complex nerve-cell signaling traced back to common ancestor of humans and sea anemones
Monday, February 16, 2015 - 21:40
in Biology & Nature
New research shows that a burst of evolutionary innovation in the genes responsible for electrical communication among nerve cells in our brains occurred over 600 million years ago in a common ancestor of humans and the sea anemone. The research reveals many of these genes, which when mutated in humans can lead to neurological disease, first evolved in the common ancestor of people and a group of animals that includes jellyfish, coral, and sea anemones.