Molecular characterisation of neurons across animals identifies conserved gene expression.

Abstract

The evolution of the nervous system has been shrouded in controversy since the onset of the genomics era. A large part of this controversy stems from the lack of phylogenetic consensus for the main branches of the animal tree, where often animals with nervous systems do not form a monophyletic group. However, this question can be informed from other non-phylogenetic perspectives, such as comparative genomics. Here we ask how similar are genes differentially expressed in neurons across a representative set of eight animals with a nervous system and tally the presence or absence of their homologs in 10 other animals and two choanoflagellates. We show that proteins from 39 families are differentially expressed in all neurons, regardless of the phylogenetic placement of their lineage, and that the majority of these gene families are present in the (unicellular) closest relatives of animals, choanoflagellates. We found that the members of these 39 gene families are enriched in domains for ion transport and juxtacrine signalling, and that there is one gene family of zinc-dependent extracellular matrix-remodelling proteins which is only found in animals bearing a nervous system. Our results show that common genetic toolkits are in place for the function of nervous systems. We identify a large number of potential new genomic markers linked to the nervous system and hope they can complement ongoing research efforts to better understand this quintessentially animal system.