All articles tagged with #nematostella vectensis
A study of the scarlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, identifies tiny multipotent stem cells and key genes that drive its remarkable regeneration and aging resistance, using single-cell genomics and CRISPR to link nanos2 and piwi to somatic cell fate, making it a powerful model for anti-aging research while noting that translating these findings to humans remains a challenge.
New research suggests that the gene mechanisms involved in brain development actually predate the evolution of the central nervous system. The study focused on Nematostella vectensis, a starlet sea anemone, and found that the gene programs responsible for patterning the brain were also present in the anemone's simpler neural net. This suggests that nature borrowed the blueprints for building brains from simpler creatures that predate humans and other animals on the evolutionary timeline. The findings challenge the notion of all brains being homologous, descended from a common ancestor, and support the idea that brain development evolved through the co-option of existing gene programs.